Renewable energy also has an information journey.

An energy initiative moves through more than its physical components. Information, organizations, business processes, and people connect the proposal with what can happen next.

Software can contribute by making those relationships more intelligible and workable.

Howard Pearlmutter developed web applications supporting legal and business processes for electric-utility renewable-energy generation adoption and grid connection. He also served in technology and integration planning for a solar-oriented development initiative.

These are practical ways information tools can serve an environmental purpose.

The useful representation may be a process map, a shared account of state, an interface, or a model of how several participants relate to one another. The choice should follow what the people carrying the work need to understand and do.

A status, for example, needs meaning in the context of the process. What has happened? What is expected next? What information does the next participant need? Which question remains open?

The visual and software design can help make those distinctions accessible.

Howard's earlier experience included electricity-substation design and cost-estimation software, atmospheric simulation, and human interaction with dynamic models. Later work brought those perspectives into renewable-energy and enterprise information systems.

The contribution can connect with the engineering, legal, financial, scientific, and operating expertise already involved. Its purpose is to make those different kinds of knowledge more usable together.

Explore flows, boundaries, and interaction.

A visual inquiry or learning session can begin with the relationship people currently find hardest to explain. A prototype or further technical work can follow where useful.

The digital part earns its place when it serves the real undertaking and the people moving it forward.