The simple definition of “Cap & Trade” is government controlled “Emissions Trading”. In other words, it is an administrative approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants. A central authority(usually government) sets a limit or “cap” on the amount of a pollutant that can be emmitted. Companies or other organizations are issued permits and are required to hold an equivalent number of allowances (or credits) which represent the right to emit a specific amount. The total amount of allowances and credits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Companies that need to increase their emission allowance must buy credits from those who pollute less. The transfer of allowances is referred to as a “trade”. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed. Thus, in theory, those who can reduce emissions most cheaply will do so, achieving the pollution reduction at the lowest cost to society.

The sad thing about this arrangement is the fact that when this is put into place the larger utility companies are simply going to pass the extra costs of purchasing their emissions quotas to the customers they currently serve. In other words, it will not actually be the utility companies who are paying the price for these emission controls but all of the general public at large. So, once again, the government and the larger corporations who are guilty of producing the most damaging pollutants are going to make we Americans pay the price for their idiotic behavior. It doesn’t take a Rocket Scientist to see that once again it is the general public who is going to get cheated into paying for the emissions reduction, not the large companies who are creating all of the dangerous emissions.

The moral of this story is that we must be very careful when it comes time for the current president of the USA to put his “cap & Trade” initiatives into place or it will be we the people who actually pay the price for all of the mistakes of the past. In my view it is actually rather appropriate that this occur because of the fact that the majority of voters have chosen to ignore this matter for far too long and when the big guys up at the top finally decide to take action it will be we the people who suffers not them. Just another current event to think about before anyone is allowed to take any further steps to “solve” this problem.

Well, probably by now you can tell when the company is really busy and when we are in a slump, as I tend to not have time to make any blog entries when we are busy and I haven’t made one in quite some time. This is directly due to the fact that the company has found a Wind Turbine that simply can’t be beat when it comes to powering a home or small facility. As I stated in my previous blog entry, we here at RETNEK and those at WindEnergy7 prefer to call this turbine the “SkyStream Killer” and believe me folks, it is just exactly that! Praise God that nearly a dozen local farmers and ranchers have come to realize this fact as well and RETNEK is extremely excited to be of assistance in helping them to get on-line with the utility companies. I can openly admit now that I did have my doubts at times as to whether I would be able to convince the local people that this is a good and righteous thing to do, not to mention the fact that they can also make money at the same time. There’s nothing wrong with making a profit from offering nearly any type of service to the general public here in the USA. It just so happens that the services RETNEK offers are not only morally and ethically correct, but the results of such actions may very well prove to be absolutely critical to the survival of the coming generations in the very near future. Anyone who wants to assure that they will never have to worry about whether they will have enough electrical power to sustain their homes and businesses simply needs to call RETNEK, LLC at (913) 370-1089 to make an appointment and we will help to make this come about in an economic fashion. The TowerMill 3.4K Wind Turbine will make certain of that. I will soon be posting pictures of our most recent projects on our other website at www.retnek.com and everyone will be able to get a good visual view of the system. The system can also be set-up with a PV Solar arrray attached to the towers. If a person chooses to do this as well there is no doubt that they will have the capacity to not only assure their own supply of electricity, but also be able to sell a good deal of power back to the utility company. RETNEK has access to all of the necessary components to make this possible and we can expertly install the system as well. Give us a call.

RETNEK is proud to announce our new affiliation with Windenergy7. They manufacture a Wind Turbine we prefer to call the “Skystream Killer”, as it produces nearly twice as much power as the Skystream manufactured by Southwest WindPower and it does not have to be shut-down whenever the grid fails, as it also has a battery bank and a powerful inverter that the home or facility can run on automatically when the grid fails to deliver. It produces enough power to completely power an average-sized home and it also automatically switches over to the battery bank without having to be shut-down when the grid fails. This also means that this new Wind Turbine will be able to guarantee that the owner will be capable of selling back all of its excess electricity, making the ROI much shorter than any other grid-tied, residential-sized Wind Generator currently on the market. Simply go to www.Windenergy7.com to see our newest product. You can purchase the Wind Generator directly from the site and then simply contact RETNEK to have us come and install it for you. All of us at RETNEK wishes everyone a very happy and productive new year to come and let’s get started solving this problem with global warming and at the same time begin saving a great deal of money, as the cost of grid-tied electricity is soon to sky-rocket when the president puts his “cap and trade” policy into effect in the very near future. It’s never too late folks. Don’t be foolish by getting caught unprepared for these dramatically changing times. Sincerely and respectfully yours, Chris Thompson, CEO—RETNEK, LLC.

It has been a long six and a half weeks since RETNEK first discovered that the company had been robbed of nearly $40,000.00. $38,426.85 to be exact! Needless to say, it was a very embarrassing and humiliating thing for me as the CEO to accept. There are no productive reasons for me to go into any specific details of how it occurred other than to say that I simply gave my employee too much financial latitude via a Debit Card and the rest is history.

So, onwards & upwards!!! The company has been blessed with the priveledge of installing two (2) Wind Turbines in recent days. One is located near Dekalb, MO. and the other just six (6) miles South and one (1) mile West of our Home Office here at Effingham, KS. The Wind Turbine being installed South of Effingham is a Whisper 200 made by Southwest WindPower out of Phoenix, AZ. ; the Turbine in Dekalb, MO. is a Whisper 500 produced by Southwest WindPower as well. They are sized perfectly for the power-load the customers wish to replace, which is currently,(no pun intended), being grid-supplied.

I must say, that I am so impressed and honored to have the opportunity to be associated with a man such as Dean (H.G.) Kirkham. When I first wrote-out the Bid-Proposal for the Wind Turbine it was ONLY sized to create enough power to run a Geo-Thermal Heat Pump system, as they were also considering making an investment in this Renewable Energy product as well. It didn’t occur to me at the time of contract signing that Dean might be of the understanding that this Wind Turbine would be able to create enough electricity to power the majority of the electrical load of his home. When this finally dawned on me I went directly out to Dean and offered to give him his money back if he was unhappy about the situation and he said “no, just go ahead and do her”. This is the kind of man it is going to take if we are to do the right thing for our future descendants. If we are SERIUOSLY going to make a difference in the ultimate outcome of this ‘Global warming’ crisis and the very real possibility of our grid-tied infrastructure being severely damaged from nations that are hostile towards us, we MUST take a “collective” approach. The “size” of the Renewable Energy System is not nearly as important as the fact that someone is FINALLY willing to open their mind and come to understand that there are many, many different ways to acquire the electricity we need and we can even produce it cheaper!!! It simply takes a very short waiting period for the ROI and after this, you’re locked-in on a guaranteed cost, not to mention the fact that you don’t ever have to go without power whenever the “grid-supplied” system fails, which is becoming a more and more frequent occurrence, if anyone hasn’t noticed. The utility companies have been increasing their rates much more frequently during the past two (2) years and the increases are significantly more than they once were only ten (10) short years ago.

It is RETNEK’s time and we are ready. Give me a call at 913-370-1089 or send me an email at creek04@hotmail.com

The past nine (9) weeks have been the toughest I’ve had to face since I formed the LLC in December of last year. RET-NEK is eleven (11) months old now and all things considered, we’ve done incredibly well. We are going into winter with several active projects on the board. I was becoming a bit anxious up until the past week, as we were down to completing our final project and it appeared as though we may go all winter long without much to do. Praise the LORD, we signed a new contract this past week and we’ve also had several stong leads to follow-up on this coming week as well.  Former vice president Al Gore was a guest on Larry King Live last evening and he pointed out the fact that this ‘Healthcare Reform’ issue has taken away much of the attention that should be on more important issues such as global warming and climate change. Anyone who has a sense of history knows that the government will never get anything really important done about improving our nations healthcare system and besides this fact, even if they do make some improvements, what good will they be if the earth is uninhabitable?? Hopefully, the folks in both houses of congress will get finished with this silly mess regarding healthcare in the near future and get down to dealing with much more serious matters, such as our ability to survive.

There is a new approach to increasing the number of people who can now become eligible to take advantage of using Renewable Energy products without having to pay the large up-front costs generally associated with the application of PV Solar systems for private use.  This new approach is called PPA’s. The system works as follows. Many companies that specialize in the marketing, design, and installation of Renewable Energy products, (PV Solar in particular), have begun to take steps to sell their customers a long-term, lease-to-own agreement. These companies install the systems on the customers property, whether on the the roofs of their facilities or on a ground-mount application, and all the customer has to do is pay for is the Kwh’s that the system produces for a set amount of time, ususally 10-15 years. At the end of the specified time period the customer will  be given the option to own the system out-right. In the meantime, the supplier of the system will be responsible for the maintenance and making certain that the system is functioning at peak performance standards. This allows the customer to avoid the exorbitant up-front costs of purchasing a PV Solar system while being able to decrease their carbon footprint and get their electricity at a permanent price that is equal to or even lower than what they would normally be paying to their local utility. This will not only increase the value of their home or property, it will also assure that they will be able to keep the cost of their electricity at a  stable rate no matter how much the utility companies raise their prices.   RET-NEK, LLC is seriously considering developing just this sort of a program for its prospective clients in the very near future, as it is the goal of RET-NEK, LLC to get as many people as possible to begin using Renewable Energy products. These PPA agreements can also be a very valuable option to the utility companies as well, due to the fact that they are mandated to see that a specific percentage of the power they sell to their customers comes from Renewable Energy sources. So, this sort of program can have a very beneficial effect on everyone involved. I will write more on this subject in the near future, so keep checking my Blogs.

In my last Blog entry I mentioned that practically the entire region of Northeast Kansas makes up a massive watershed and this fact means that nearly all landowners have the potential to make their land pay for itself in a very short period of time as a direct result of the fact that there is “running” water moving across nearly all of this property. RET-NEK, LLC has access to the highest quality hydro-generators in the world, which means that all of the companys prospective customers have access to these components as well and the cost of these products is quite economical in consideration of the potential ROI, (Return on investment). As soon as the landowner completes construction of the project, the systems can begin earning money by producing grid-quality electricity which can be sold back to the utility companies. In other words, any landowner can also own their own “private” utility, as the government has now made it mandatory that all utility companies MUST purchase this energy as long as it is properly inverted so that it will be compatible with the grid-tied power that is being distributed to all the utility companys customers. For the life of me, I can not understand why more people are not taking advantage of such opportunities. RET-NEK, LLC has every intention of doing just this in the very near future, as I, Chris Thompson, the Owner and CEO of the the company happens to be a landowner myself. The only reason I haven’t begun to construct my own project is the fact that I have been too busy putting together Renewable Energy Systems for my customers. It is sort of like the capentar who never has time to get his own home completely built the way he wants it or the mechanic who never has the time or the inclination to keep his own vehicle in good working order. By the time they get finished working on everyone else’s projects, they can’t find time to take care of their own initiatives. I have, however, installed a hybrid system onsisting of a combination of PV Solar and a Wind Turbine that provides enough power to run my own office building, as I felt I couldn’t allow myself to appear to be some type of a hypocrite by not “practicing what I preach”. I also have every intention of beginning construction on my own project this coming Spring on the farm-land where I currently reside. I am very excited about getting started, but, as I have stated in  previous Blog entries, my particular situation is as unique as every other persons and it takes time to plan and design these projects in order to be certain that every possible angle is taken into consideration. As the plan evolves and changes, I intend to keep all of my Blog readers fully informed of my efforts and actions, as well as the rationale for which applications and components I choose to put into place. A major factor that I am taking into consideration is the fact that if we expect to be successful in our efforts to be a good example to others in regards to becoming less dependent upon the utility companies for the acquisition of our electrical power, we MUST  always keep in mind the importance of learning how to cut-down on the amount of electrical power we require to maintain our same level of comfort and saftey. Therefore, RET-NEK, LLC also intends to construct a home that is much more energy efficient than any other average dwelling. It is my intention to construct the first “steel container” home in Atchison County. Aside from having a home that is incredibly strong, (tornado proof), the R-value of the home will be further enhanced by the use of closed-cell spray foam insulation. As I said, I will keep everyone informed of my progress as I go along and will also be posting many photos of the projects as well. I hope all of my readers will enjoy monitoring the progression of these endeavors and it will inspire many others to follow my example.  I will write more on how these types of homes are constructed as we move along through time. There already exist many very good internet sources of information on the construction of these types of homes, however, most of them are more of a source of how to obtain the materials, whereas, RET-NEK, LLC intends to actually record the actual design and construction process, so stay tuned.

Although RET-NEK, LLC has been a company for ten (10) months, as of today, and maintained a Website throughout this time period at separatepathwayenergy.com,  I felt it was time to start making our products available to more people, in more places than just Northeast Kansas. So, here is the new RET-NEK Solar Systems Webstore!! After nearly two (2) weeks of intermittent learning sessions I have gained a firm understanding of how to operate the store and I’m confident you will be pleased with the services I can provide you. I pray that everyone enjoys looking at and learning about all of the fascinating products that are at your disposal with which to make a direct & critical impact on the fight to decrease our dependency upon grid-tied electricity. I’m positively certain that at the same time you will be given the opportunity to save money while becoming more self-reliant and much less dependent upon the utility companies for your comfort & survival. My mother told me over and over again as I was growing up that “God helps those who help themselves”. This a fact beyond dispute. Please join me in my endeavor to respond appropriately to her wise and loving declaration.

Nearly eight (8) months into the life of the company I still had this nagging feeling that there was something missing from the business model. Then, at literally 2:30 AM, in the middle of the night, I awoke from a half-sleep and realized that no one can honestly say they run a “full-service” Renewable Energy Company and not be capable of providing its customers with Ground Source Heat Pumps.  So, I immediately enrolled in the IGSHPA, (International Ground Source Heat Pump Association), program at Oklahoma State University. Fortunately, they were holding a class within the next three (3) weeks and I got accepted. It was only after my very good friend, Dr. Tom Dooley, explained to me that if we truly hope to decrease our dependency upon grid-tied electricity we MUST take advantage of all Renewable Energy Products and Applications available to us in an aggregative approach, that I began to understand what I had to do. I realize that I have already mentioned this matter previously and will more than likely mention it again, as it simply can not be stressed enough how important it is that we who market & install these types of products always maintain an open mind regarding different ways to configure the huge assortment of different systems that are available to us, in order to best suit each individual circumstance. This brings to mind another Renewable Energy Application that doesn’t seem to get much mention in the newsprint, but I believe it should and this is Hydro-Generators. There are so many land-owners around Northeast Kansas who have running water moving across their properties, it is practically incomprehensible. Northeast Kansas is a massive Water Shed folks!! RET-NEK has access to the highest quality Hydro-Generators in the world. Many, many landowners have the ability to generate all of the electricity, and more, than they will ever need in their lifetimes, right at their fingertips and don’t even realize it. This is very good food for thought for any of you who enjoy reading my Blog entries. I’ll write more on this matter later.

Nearly all of the projects that RET-NEK completes consist of more than just one simple product or mechanism. This is because there are very few situations where a customer can adequately produce enough electricity to fulfill all of their needs through the use of a single application. Wind Turbines are great in very specific regions of the country. The same can be said about PV Solar Systems. However, there are hardly any areas of the country, (or the world for that matter), where the sun is ALWAYS shining or the wind is ALWAYS blowing at an adequate speed. Thus, a “hybrid” system needs to be developed. This simply means that there is a combination of two or more Renewable Energy sources being employed at the same time. RET-NEK has discovered that a very, very good combination of systems happens to be a Ground Source Heat Pump coupled with a Whisper 500 Wind Generator and a robust Battery Bank. This combination of components allows an average homeowner to live without the fear of ever having to go without heating, cooling, or domestic hot water for an indefinite period of time during the loss of a functioning power grid. Without a doubt, this “hybrid” system is a real winner, but there are many, many other combinations of components which can accomplish the exact same goals with just a little bit of well thought-out planning. This is what RET-NEK does best. We love a good challenge. NEVER assume that your property is not a good area to work with in regards to finding your way off of the power grid or staying off of it altogether. ALWAYS give RET-NEK, LLC a phone call or send us an email before you decide that nothing can be done to solve a problem in regards to getting electricity to a location, no matter how remote or impossible the situation may appear.  It is highly likely that we can fix it very economically.