Kurt Newick

• FOLLOW
• CONTACT

About Kurt

Kurt Newick works as a Solar System Designer (in sales), at Cobalt Power in Mountain View, California. Cobalt Power is a licensed CA solar power contractor installing photovoltaic systems. Over a 3 year period between 1987 and 1990, as an activist with the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth, Kurt conducted a campaign to phase out stratospheric ozone destroying compounds, partnering with industrial CFC users to transition to ozone safe alternatives. Kurt was instrumental in getting laws passed at the local, state and to a lesser extent, the national level (e.g., Clean Air Act of 1990) to phase out CFCs, promote renewable energy and curb global warming. In 1999 Kurt founded and currently chairs the Global Warming and Energy Committee at the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club. He coordinated a residential PV permit survey for all permitting jurisdictions in the San Francisco Bay Area between 2005 - 2008. He co-authored a related Solar Permit Fee study, then led a Sierra Club campaign calling for the reduction of solar permit fees. This resulted in a significant reduction or elimination of solar permit fees in 77 municipalities. The Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club awarded Kurt Newick a Special Achievement award for this campaign. A Volunteer Appreciation Award in 2005 was awared to Kurt from the Northern California Solar Energy Association for his outstanding accomplishments in this area. Since 2009 Kurt had been participating in a California statewide effort to reduce PV permit fees for residential and commercial PV systems. In 2010 he published a commercial PV permit fee study. In 2012 Sierra Club California awarded Kurt the John Zierhold Award which recognizes an individual who has served Sierra Club California in an area of legislative advocacy for his enabling work to enact two California laws capping solar permit fees (SB 1222 and AB 1801). He has volunteered with Silicon Valley SolarTech and NorCal Solar organizations. Kurt lives in a solar electric home, with self-installed solar radiant heat and solar hot water systems. Kurt Newick has a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Chico State University.