Sustainable Agricultural Energy Systems: An eXtension Community of Practice.

The Sustainable Agricultural Energy Systems Community of Practice (CoP) is one of the newest eXtension CoPs.  eXtension is an interactive, web-based learning environment delivering researched knowledge from land-grant universities and other organizations to consumers.  The objective of this CoP is to offer electronic access to research and outreach information that explores opportunities and provides strategies for reducing the carbon footprint of farmers and others involved in agriculture.  These strategies include renewable energy production and use, proactive energy conservation methods, as well as innovative applications of existing alternative technologies and options.  The organizational team plans to engage members of the CoP to utilize existing research and on-going outreach to develop web-based educational and information resources around a multitude of farm and energy-related topics across the nation.  These topics include biofuels derived from feedstocks such as corn-based ethanol or oilseed biodiesel, on-farm energy conservation strategies such as greenhouse energy audits and improved heating systems, and solar or wind-based energy generation.  The developed informational resources will be available through www.eXtension.org to students, researchers, agricultural professionals, and the general public.