Tag Archive for: solarpanels

CA’s risk of blackouts has fallen as more renewable energy & batteries are added to electric grid, reducing the need to import electricity

California is less likely to have blackouts thanks to solar and big batteries

California’s risk of power shortfalls and blackouts has fallen as more renewable energy and batteries are added to its electric grid, while such threats in New York rose thanks to higher electricity demand and new restrictions on gas-fired power plants, industry regulators said.

“The challenge in New York is the New York City area,” Mark Olson, a manager at the North American Electric Reliability Corp., said Wednesday on a call with reporters about its latest reliability report. “Under high demand, getting transmission to flow into the load centers could be a challenge.”

In California, on the other hand, the risk of blackouts has fallen as more renewable energy and batteries are added, reducing the need to import electricity from other regions, NERC said. The grid has been designated “elevated risk,” which means it has enough energy for normal conditions though could fall short in extreme weather.

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Source: Bloomberg

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Carter believes that the Solar Workforce Accelerator Program helps schools save money and shows people that solar power is accessible.

Solar apprenticeship program benefits southwest Virginia communities

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Isaac Carter’s summer days started early. The 17-year-old from Dryden, Virginia, unloaded trailers, carried equipment up ladders to rooftops and pulled wires to connect solar panels.

It was hard but satisfying work, and it paid $17 an hour – a good wage for a young person in rural Southwest Virginia. He also earned college credit for it, has an internship experience to add to his resume and obtained an Occupational Safety and Health Administration certification, commonly known as an OSHA 10 card, that makes him more desirable to employers – all before he began his last year of high school.

Carter was part of the Solar Workforce Accelerator Program, a youth solar apprenticeship program in Southwest Virginia. The program operates as a partnership between Mountain Empire Community College, the Solar Workgroup of Southwest Virginia collaborative group, solar company Secure Solar Futures, Wise and Lee county public schools and the electric company Got Electric.

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Source: The Appalachian Voice

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Project Nexus’s feasibility study estimates that installing solar canals where possible in CA could save 63 billion gallons of water annually.

Water saving solar panels, coming soon to a canal near you

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The upcoming COP28 climate conference has suddenly blown up in a wave of scandal, but the energy transition marches on. Exhibit A is the idea of shading irrigation canals with solar panels for a planet-saving win-win-win. The cooling effect of the water improves solar conversion efficiency, the shade prevents excess water loss from evaporation, and the use of built infrastructure preserves land from development. What’s not to like?

Water Saving Solar Panels On Canals In California

The idea of water-saving solar panels on canals first surfaced in India back in 2012. More recently it crossed the CleanTechnica radar in February of 2022 when a collaborative public-private PV collaboration called Project Nexus began taking shape in California, using a canal in the state’s Turlock Irrigation District as a proving ground.

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Source: Clean Technica

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The Gila River Indian Community signed a project partnership agreement with US Army Corps of Engineers to put solar panels over its canals.

A Native American tribe is about to put solar panels over its canals

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The Gila River Indian Community signed a project partnership agreement with the US Army Corps of Engineers to put solar panels over its canals.

This means the US Army Corps of Engineers will kick off construction on Phase I of the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project Renewable Energy Pilot south of Phoenix, Arizona.

The pilot is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration and the Bureau of Reclamation to implement solutions for the drought crisis that’s threatening the Colorado River Basin.

The objective is to create clean energy and conserve water in the Tribe’s canal. The Gila River Indian Community is the home of the Akimel O’otham (Pima) and the Pee-Posh (Maricopa) tribes.

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Source: electrek

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Solar panels are now being installed on the roof of St. Mark Presbyterian Church. It should easily power the church’s entire 7-acre campus.

Christians and climate change: Southern California churches preach very different messages

Crews started installing solar panels this week on the red tile roof at St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach. Pastor Mark Davis said the project, once complete, should easily power the church’s entire 7-acre campus.

Last year, many of St. Mark’s 550 members attended a meeting, in keeping with Presbyterian doctrine, to vote on taking out a loan to finance the $200,000 solar project. There was some spirited debate about the financial implications, Davis said with a chuckle, but in the end members gave the project an enthusiastic green light. They see the panels as key to St. Mark’s goal of going completely carbon neutral by 2030.

“My message is that it’s an ethical imperative that we focus on the common good,” Davis said. At his church, he said, congregants are regularly encouraged to think about protecting “the flora and the fauna, the dirt, the water, the air — all of the things that it takes to sustain life.”

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Source: The Sun

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Community solar is a middle-ground approach, a different model, featuring solar arrays that provide energy savings for subscribers.

Community solar is growing to fill the gaps in clean energy

When you think about solar panels, you probably have one of two images in mind: one is of the half dozen or more panels on your neighbor’s roof, and the other is of a big field in the desert with panels laid out in all directions.

Community solar is a middle-ground approach, a different model, featuring solar arrays that provide energy savings for subscribers. According to the terms of state regulations authorizing these programs, many of those subscribers have incomes that would make it harder for them to put solar panels on their roofs — or live in apartments where they are unable to install panels altogether.

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Source: CNET

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Charitable foundations are using a variety of strategies to get solar panels for health centers, schools and other community buildings.

Here’s how foundations are bringing solar to lower-income communities

The rooftop solar industry is booming, but far too few lower-income Americans are benefiting as a result. It’s a ​“modern version of redlining,” according to Joe Evans of the Kresge Foundation. Now an increasing number of charitable foundations are stepping up to redress that injustice, using a range of approaches to bring the benefits of solar to the communities that need it most.

Thanks to foundations, more than 300 solar panels were installed in the Hopi and Navajo Nations in Arizona, creating jobs and providing reliable electricity to health centers, schools and other community buildings. A former coal mining area in West Virginia became a hub of solar development, with a comprehensive solar job-training program. Dozens of Wisconsin nonprofits received free solar panels, accelerating their shift to clean energy and boosting enthusiasm for solar in their communities. And 24 U.S. health centers in areas at risk for natural disasters developed solar systems with battery backup to supply power when the grid goes down.

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Source: Canary Media

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Elected officials and school leaders in Alameda County are calling on the state to block a controversial proposal that could prevent California schools from embracing solar power.

Leaders call on California to block controversial solar power proposal

Elected officials and school leaders in Alameda County are calling on the state to block a controversial proposal that could prevent California schools from embracing solar power.

School board officials in Oakland and state leaders want the state to reject the proposal that they say would spike solar costs on rooftops and parking lots and ultimately take money away from Oakland classrooms.

“It’s baffling that anyone would make solar projects more difficult rather than easier at this very urgent time,” Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) board member Sam Davis said.

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Source: NBC

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Norway has installed the world’s northernmost ground solar panels in a region plunged in round-the-clock darkness all winter.

Solar panels installed in remote Arctic community to power green energy transition

Norway has installed the world’s northernmost ground solar panels in its Svalbard archipelago, a region plunged in round-the-clock darkness all winter.

The pilot project could help remote Arctic communities transition to green energy.

Neatly lined up in six rows in a field, 360 solar panels will on Thursday begin providing electricity to an old shipping radio station, Isfjord Radio, now converted into a base camp for tourists.

The windswept archipelago – also known as Spitsbergen – is located some 1,300 kilometres from the North Pole and is accessible only by boat or helicopter, weather permitting.

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Source: Euro News

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The Zúñigas got their panels for free, as a result of a state program called Transformative Climate Communities.

Low-income households are getting help from a free solar rooftop program

Gloria and Macedonio Zúñiga have lived in Pacoima for more than 45 years. They emigrated from Mexico and built a life here — Gloria worked as a seamstress and Macedonio as a machinist. They eventually bought a home and raised three children.

Now retired, their days are mostly spent watching over their six young grandchildren.

But in recent years, they’ve noticed the heat only going up. She said every day has felt hotter than the last.

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Source: LAist

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