Kelly Gloger
Mr. Gloger is a designer, planner, and biologist whose training and experience spans the worlds of architecture/construction and natural science.
Initially trained as an architect at the University of Houston, Mr. Gloger spent the early part of his career designing and building homes for clients interested in participating in the construction of their own residences. He began incorporating solar and energy conservation systems into his projects as early as the 1970’s. He worked for the New England Solar Energy Association as a solar home auditor and later served as the executive director of the New Hampshire Solar Self-Help agency that assisted home owners in designing and installing solar heating systems for their residences.
Mr. Gloger’s interest in the issues of water reuse and waste recycling for buildings became a focus in the late 1980’s. He worked for Kruger Engineering in New Hampshire, an engineering firm specializing in the design and installation of natural wastewater treatment systems before returning to Texas A&M University in 1993 to earn a Master of Science degree. His masters research took place on the island of St. Croix and focused on wastewater recycling and reuse in aquaculture systems. Upon graduation he moved to St. Croix to design and operate a commercial aquaponic farm for Intercontinental Growers Association that supplied lettuce and herbs to most of the supermarkets on St. Croix and St. Thomas.
In 1999 Mr. Gloger joined the firm of Sustainable Systems & Design International (SSDI), a St. Croix company specializing in environmental planning and “Green” systems/infrastructure (solar, wind, natural wastewater treatment, etc.) design and installation for residential and commercial projects. As a senior associate at SSDI he was part of the team that installed the first net metered solar electric systems under a contract with the Virgin Island Energy Office. In 2005 he was a member of the team that conducted a year-long study of the wind resource for the Territory and co-authored the study’s final report for the Virgin Islands Energy Office. He continues to provide consulting services to SSDI and its clients throughout the Caribbean and is the managing partner for Solar Delivered!, LLC.
Onaje Jackson
Mr. Jackson is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Yale University with Degrees in Architecture and Applied Science and City Planning. He has served multiple terms on the Boards of Directors of the American Solar Energy Society and the Yale African American Cultural Center and has lectured extensively in the US and the Caribbean on renewable energy and sustainable development.
With over twenty years of experience in the renewable energy, architectural engineering, and sustainable development fields, Onaje Jackson has provided innovative, environmentally sensitive project solutions for top private and public organizations throughout the United States and the Caribbean. Before founding SSDI in 1993, Jackson served as the Coordinator for the Virgin Islands Renewable Energy Institute, whose mission was to promote the widespread use of renewable energy technologies in the Virgin Islands and the Caribbean. Prior to that assignment, he served as the Permits Administrator and Director of the Coastal Zone Management Program for the V.I. Department of Planning and Natural Resources, and also provided technical support for the V.I. Energy Office as Technical Advisor.
Mr. Jackson is a leader in the sustainable design, technology, and development movement and his company, Sustainable Systems & Design International (SSDI), is a cutting edge performer in “earth-friendly” infrastructure (energy, water, and waste treatment systems) and facility design, engineering, and implementation. SSDI has completed successful projects throughout the Caribbean, Central, and South America including, among numerous others;
• The World Bank; Guyana, South America: Planning, engineering, and installation of solar and wind powered water delivery systems.
• The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority and the Virgin Islands Energy Office; Design, engineering, and installation of pilot Net Metered PV power supply systems, the 1st utility sponsored net metered PV systems in the Caribbean.
• The Virgin Islands Energy Office: Managed a VI Territorial Wind Energy Evaluation entitled “Updated Wind Resource Assessment with a Characterization Of the Constraints And Opportunities for Wind Energy Utilization”.
• Programme for Belize; Belize, Central America: “Green” facility design; engineering, and installation of integrated energy, water, and waste treatment systems for research station developments, N.W. rainforest district.
• The Nature Conservancy, US Virgin Islands; Planning and engineering of solar (PV) power and gray water recycling systems supporting an Environmental Education Center.
• Carambola – Marriot Renaissance Resort, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands; Sustainability Master Plan, “green” building designs, and sustainable infrastructure engineering for planned resort expansion.
Dr. Ken Haines
Dr. Haines grew up on a farm in New Jersey that had been in the same family for 10 generations. He was the first generation to leave the farm because it was being carved up by the expansion of six-lane highways and suburbia. His educational background was in biology, and later in marine botany. He came to St. Croix in 1969 for an aquaculture project after completing his doctoral research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic. The Artificial Upwelling Project at Estate Rust-0p-Twist was a successful Sea Grant-supported attempt to show that it was technically feasible to create an artificial food chain in ponds on land, leading to the production of edible clams using seawater pumped off the bottom of the ocean below the thermocline. Water from a depth of 900-1000 meters is rich in dissolved nutrients and is an ideal medium for the growth of algae, which in turn form an ideal diet for the clams. The life cycle from egg to harvestable clam was completed in less than a year, versus 2-3 years in nature, where the clam’s growth essentially ceases in the winter. This research was done in anticipation of the construction of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) plants that would generate electricity using the 40F temperature difference between the surface and deep water in the tropics. However, because oil remained so plentiful and cheap through the 70s, 80s and 90s, no OTEC plant was ever built, so shellfish growing, using the discharged deep water from OTEC plants, was never attempted commercially.
In 1979, Dr. Haines switched to industrial environmental work at the Martin Marietta alumina plant, where he headed up a group that monitored the impact of that facility on the environment. When the plant was closed in 1984, he started an environmental consulting company, Coastal Consultants, working primarily on environmental assessments for industry, government and private developers. He worked for FEMA as an environmental specialist during hurricane disasters, and later for St. Croix Renaissance Group where he still works part-time. In 2001 he installed a photovoltaic system on his home in Hermon Hill. The system was expanded and is now producing half of his electricity needs; in 2007 he became the VI’s first homeowner using net-metering with the local electrical utility. He has been using solar domestic water heating since 1983. Dr. Haines is semi-retired, playing tennis and sailing regularly and working part-time on environmental-related projects. He is a Founding Partner of Solar Delivered!, LLC.
|
