Larson-Notari Award
Recipients: 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008

CRES annually recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable buildings through the Larson-Notari award. There is one winner for 2008: Colorado Governor Bill Ritter

The Larson-Notari Award is named in honor of Dr. Ronal Larson and Paul Notari, two founding members of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES) in 1996. Read more about Ronal Larson and Paul Notari.

The CRES Board of Directors selects each year’s winners from nominations submitted by CRES members. The winners must live in Colorado but do not have to be CRES members. Nominations are confidential, and CRES notifies only the winners that they were successfully nominated. CRES gives each award winner a handsome plaque, which is thanks to a generous donation from Pieter van der Mersch, who was a resource-conservation advocate since the early 1970’s, and his wife, Martha van der Mersch.

2007 Recipient: Becky Campbell-Howe

When Becky first heard about receiving the Larson Notari award, she "fell out of my chair." The fact that the award is named after two of her personal heroes -- CRES co-founders Ron Larson and Paul Notari -- makes receiving it that much more special.

Becky Campbell-Howe has been a pillar of professionalism and strength at the American Solar Energy Society. Often working behind the scenes, Becky has quietly but significantly contributed to the progress of renewable energy development and to the Society’s mission. We all gain because of her dedication and talent.

2006 Recipient: John Avenson

John Avenson stands next to the PV system on the roof of his house in Westminster.

The Colorado Renewable Energy Society recognizes John Avenson’s contributions to the field of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainable buildings in Colorado with the 2006 Larson-Notari Award.

(Read more about the Larson-Notari award.)

John Avenson won this recognition from his peers because of his ongoing commitment to advance the cause of solar energy. Although he does not work in the field, Avenson does more public outreach and education than almost anyone else in Colorado. For example, he took a week vacation from his day job so that he could volunteer for the ASES Solar 2006 Conference in Denver.

For several years now, the Avenson house in Westminster has been the most popular on the Colorado Tour of Solar Homes. Avenson goes out into the community and recruits different organizations to visit his home and see how solar energy works. Every item in the house that is energy efficient is neatly labeled so that people know all the little things that can be done. He even sends out 'press releases' when he adds something new!

John Avenson hung the 2006 Larson-Notari Award plaque on the wall next to the computer than controls energy consumption in his home.

Avenson said at the Solar 2006 Conference after receiving the award, “I hung the award plaque in my front hall next to the house energy monitor computer.”

This computer monitors the house temperature at each window, sun irradiance, light switches (on or off), motion sensors, and controls the up-down motor on the window shades. The system automatically makes sure that the sun does not interfere with the entertainment system, the shades hold the heat in during winter or out during summer, and no lights are needlessly on.

Avenson posts the output of his PV system online. http://view2.fatspaniel.net/FST/Portal/SolSource/
seri/HostedEndUserView.htm l
 

2005 Recipients

Rick Gilliam

Rick Gilliam is an advocate for effective clean energy policies and practices throughout the West. He has been the lead environmental representative for the renewable portfolio standards (RPS) in Arizona and Nevada, and drafted RPS legislation in Utah and Colorado. He was the primary author of Colorado Amendment 37, which was the renewable energy ballot initiative passed by the voters in November 2004. He is also a minority principal in the Hopi Solar Enterprise – NativeSUN.

Gilliam has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and a Masters of Environmental Policy and Management from the University of Denver. His spent six years as an expert witness with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and 12 years as director of revenue requirements for Public Service Company of Colorado. In 1994, Gilliam joined the Land and Water Fund, now known as Western Resource Advocates, a nonprofit conservation law and policy center promoting sustainable energy development and water use in a six state region of the interior West.

Mark Fitzgerald had a life-long service to the advancement of solar energy.

Mark Fitzgerald

Mark C. Fitzgerald was executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Power, Inc. (ISP), a nonprofit organization in Highlands Ranch that develops and implements global training accreditation and practitioner certification standards for renewable energy professionals. ISP is currently active in developing accreditation and certification frameworks in 12 countries and several American Indian Nations.

Fitzgerald was the founding publisher and editor of PV International magazine and served as executive director of the PV Information and Education Association in the 1980s. He worked for several solar energy companies and government agencies that are active in energy, including the U.S. National Center for Appropriate Technology in Butte, Montana, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden.

Fitzgerald was the U.S. representative to the International Energy Agency’s Photovoltaic Power Systems Task 9 Expert Working Group on Photovoltaics in Developing Countries. He served on the ANSI review committee for the ISO/IEC-17024 Standard for Accrediting. And he served on the advisory board of the American Solar Energy Society’s Solar Today magazine. He was also the author of more than 25 articles for both technical and popular publications.

Fitzgerald received an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Arizona, Tucson; a Master of Arts Degree in Energy and Environmental Planning from Governors State University in Illinois; and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Planning and Design from the University of Colorado. Over the years, Mark pursued a hobby in compiling hundreds of hours of interviews of solar pioneers. This footage is being compiled into a video presentation on solar pioneers in August at the 2005 Solar World Congress in Orlando, Florida.

The CRES board issues an award annually to individuals who contribute to advancing renewable energy and energy efficiency in Colorado in the name of CRES founders Ronal Larson and Paul Notari.

About the Award 

The Board of Directors of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society established the Larson-Notari Award in 2005 to recognize individual contributions to renewable energy and energy efficiency. Ronal Larson and Paul Notari are cofounders of CRES.

Ronal Larson

Dr. Ronal Larson is a retired professor of electrical engineering Georgia Tech and former branch chief and principal scientist at the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), now the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

His U.S. solar energy activities began in 1973 as a Congressional Fellow when he worked on the first two solar bills passed by Congress.  His fellowship continued for an extra year with the now disbanded Congressional Office of Technology Assessment.

In 2005 Dr. Larson serves as chair-elect of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) and will serve as chair in 2006.  He is chair of the ASES Strategic Planning Committee and serves on five other ASES Committees.  He was a co-editor of ASES white papers on the economics of renewables and on renewable hydrogen, and an MIT book on commercialization of solar thermal systems.   For its first eight years of existence he served as CRES secretary, and he still chairs the CRES Committee on State Regulatory and Legislative Issues. He is owner of a “zero-energy” home that was built around the University of Colorado’s 2002 award-winning Solar Decathlon House.  He is also active in preparing for the 2006 ASES Conference in Denver.

Dr. Larson’s international work is equally impressive.  Starting in 1996, Dr. Larson served for seven years as the volunteer coordinator of the “stoves” Internet list.  His stoves and international interests grew out of leading a U.S. Agency for International Development project in Sudan in the early 1980s.  That activity in turn grew out of being the principal author (while at SERI) of the U.S. National Paper for the United Nations Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy held in Nairobi, Kenya in 1981.  As president of his own consulting firm, he has worked on solar and stoves projects in Brazil at the 1992 Rio Conference, Sweden, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Kyrgyzstan, and South Africa at the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit for Sustainable Development.

Paul Notari

Paul Notari heads a small firm, SciTech Communications, that publishes technical documents devoted primarily to renewable energy. He is the editor and publisher of CRES News, the monthly newsletter of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society.  In 1996 he, along with Dr. Ronal Larson, founded the Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES) and served on the CRES Board of Directors until 2003.

From 1979 to 1992 Notari worked for SERI as manager of technical information programs. He served on the Board of Directors of the American Solar Energy Society from 1981 through 1992, and in 1990 and 1991 was elected chair. In 2000 he was named an ASES fellow. In early 2005 he was reelected to the ASES Board of Directors, where he serves as chair of its Renewable Fuels and Transportation Division.

From 1952 until 1979, Mr. Notari held positions as director of publications for the American Water Works Association, director of communications for the Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association, and manager of publications and training for Motorola, Inc. He also served three years as a guest professor in the Business School of Northwestern University. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946; obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics from DePaul University in 1952 and a Master of Science Degree in Business from Rollins College in 1967.  Notari is listed in Who's Who in America.