A few weeks ago I was talking with Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious Materials—a green construction products company based in California—about windows and R-Value. Windows are notoriously inefficient, allowing expensively heated and cooled air inside a building to escape with impunity. But specially designed windows with a high R-Value can help. The higher a window’s R-Value, the better it keeps in heat on cold days and cool air on hot days, saving the building’s owner a small fortune in heating and cooling costs.

But when it comes to single-family homes, Surace said, most homeowner are clueless, opting for low-end, relatively inefficient double pane windows, even though paying a little more for better insulated windows saves a lot of money in the long run. When I asked why homeowners aren’t hipper to the value of R-Value, his answer surprised me. “Because they haven’t heard our story,” he said. “There are hundreds of companies selling energy efficient windows, each with its own sales pitch, and it can be hard to break through the clutter.”

Now, I don’t know much about the technical ins and outs of R-Value or energy efficient building materials. But I do understand the value of a well-told story. Surace’s comment resonated with me because telling stories about renewable energy—what it is, why it matters, and why people should care—is what I’ve been doing every day for the past year while working on my book. And whenever I get bogged down or lost in a whirl of notes and details, wondering how I’ll ever manage to pull it all together, I try to remind myself of the larger purpose—namely, to cut through the clutter and give readers a clear, cogent look at the renewable energy landscape, past, present, and future.

In short, I remind myself, storytelling is important. Too often, I think, the energy story is dominated by facts and figures, by megawatts and cost projections and other technical details that, while clearly relevant, can leave the non-industry insider cold. What we need more of, to my mind, are stories about energy on a human scale, stories that give the average person a sense of what’s at stake and why he or she should care. (A great example is a short promotional video produced by AFC Energy. Watch it here.)

In other words, we need more stories about the big energy picture. Which is where you, readers and contributors to Matter Network, come in. I’d like this blog to be a virtual space where readers share stories and idea about our energy past, present, and future. Why do the latest innovations in solar, wind, and electric vehicles matter? Why should the average person care? Why do you care? What’s your take on our exciting, every-changing energy landscape? Tell us your stories...

Photo by Honou/flickr/Creative Commons

Jeremy Shere is a science writer who is preparing the book "ReNEWable: Exploring the Past, Present and Future of Alternative Energy", for St. Martin's Press. See the book in progress at http://renewablebook.wordpress.com/.