Tag Archive for: sustainability

Feed-in Tariff program has 155 projects with a combined capacity of 105.2MW in service as of Dec. 2023, according to the program dashboard.

Los Angeles public-private partnership aims to advance industrial solar

Dive Brief:

  • A 1.5-megawatt solar array atop an industrial building in the Panorama City neighborhood of Los Angeles is the latest renewable energy project to take advantage of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Feed-in Tariff program.
  • FiT has 155 projects with a combined capacity of 105.2 megawatts in service as of December 2023, according to the program dashboard. Another 114 projects representing 72 MW are planned or under development, leaving 57.7 MW in capacity for eligible applicants.
  • Applicants must agree to sell power back to LADWP for at least 10 years, according to the program website — one of several barriers to participation that Arielle Lopez, policy and programs associate for sustainability at the Los Angeles Business Council, identified in an interview with Facilities Dive.

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Source: Utility Dive

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When completed, the pergola at All Saints Church in Riverside, CA, will resemble a patio cover that will collect power from the sun's rays.

Church in Riverside, CA creates path to sustainability through solar

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When completed, the approximately 60- x 30-foot steel pergola at All Saints Church in Riverside, California, will resemble a shade structure or patio cover. It will shield church members from the sun’s rays while solar panels on top collect power from those rays, leading to elimination of the parish’s monthly electric bill and possibly even turning a profit.

“We have this list of things we think God is calling us to do … just looking at all the different ways we can care for creation,” said the Rev. Kelli Grace Kurtz, rector of All Saints.

The church, a participant in the Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society program to increase post-disaster community resiliency in faith-based institutions, has been tackling that list in the interest of clean energy. Their efforts included removing an old gas stove in the kitchen, beginning a solar panel project and “a next big chapter would be installing electric vehicle charging stations and putting in LED lights,” Kurtz said.

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Source: Episcopal News Service

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UC Students design & build from the ground up a showcase house that will use solar electricity that doesn’t need to be connected to the grid.

Students design & build affordable, energy-efficient home

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A group of UC Riverside mechanical engineering undergrads started a year and a half ago with just a grant application and an idea.

None of them had architectural or building construction experience. Yet they managed to obtain funding and design and build from the ground up a showcase house that will use solar electricity so wisely it doesn’t need to be connected to the grid.

Fresh off exhibiting a section of the house at a home design show in Orange County, the students were invited in November to design and display a second home at an international design competition in St. Louis in 2025 called the Gateway Decathlon. The invite comes with a $100,000 grant, though the students expect to raise additional funds to complete the project.

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Source: UC Riverside

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Sesame Solar and Watergen's collaboration provides a source of safe, clean water for both drinking and renewable energy production.

Sesame Solar and Watergen partner on mobile nanogrids that provide power and drinking water

Two kinds of technology are coming together to create renewable energy and drinking water for use in everything from emergencies to entertainment.

Sesame Solar out of Jackson, Michigan, makes mobile nanogrids that generate off-grid power within 15 minutes using solar, green hydrogen and battery storage.

The nanogrids consist of a retractable solar array that charges a battery system to produce green hydrogen via electrolyzers. The hydrogen system needs deionized water to run, which Sesame keeps on hand during deployments.

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Source: Forbes

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Combining both agriculture and solar power generation can also help optimize the productivity and efficiency of land use.

How solar energy can help boost biodiversity and farming

The farming industry has always been associated with the good stewardship of natural resources, but it is branching out into new areas of sustainability, including renewable energy.

Using cleaner and greener forms has many obvious benefits, including reducing carbon emissions and other types of pollution, but in the case of farming it can also have additional benefits.

In particular, combining both agriculture and solar power generation — often called agrivoltaics — can also help optimize the productivity and efficiency of land use.

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Source: Forbes

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TFE is making a significant investment in a series of sustainability projects, spanning across four properties and exemplifying its proactive approach to reducing its carbon footprint.

Napa Valley winemaker adds solar arrays to four properties

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Trinchero Family Estates (TFE) is making a significant investment in a series of sustainability projects, spanning across four properties and exemplifying its proactive approach to reducing its carbon footprint. These projects – scheduled for completion by the end of this year – will include solar installations at four California wineries: Westside winery in Lodi, Main Street winery in St. Helena, Trinchero Central Coast winery in Paso Robles, and Green Island Road winery in American Canyon. Together, the installations will total more than 6.4 MWDC.

Green Island Road winery’s solar installation is the first to be completed and receive permission to operate and the American Canyon winery is now running on solar. REC Solar/Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions has meticulously designed the systems at Green Island Road and TFE’s other properties to accommodate evolution and expansion. Main Street winery’s systems will come online in December, with battery storage and microgrid capabilities.

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Source: Solar Power World

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California, along with other states and the solar industry, is actively working to develop ways to recover the valuable materials from decommissioned solar panels and minimize the disposal of hazardous components.

From sun to sustainability: The journey of solar panel recycling

California has become a significant hub for solar panel installations, leading the way in the adoption of solar energy within the United States.
With a current installed capacity of over 11,000 MW or the amount of electricity that would power Los Angeles County, the state has embraced sustainable practices and played a pivotal role in promoting clean energy solutions.

However, the growing popularity of solar panels has brought attention to a critical issue: the challenge of recycling these devices at the end of their lifespan.

As the United States is projected to dominate solar power in North America by 2030, with an estimated capacity of 240 gigawatts, concerns are emerging about the potential accumulation of solar waste. Experts anticipate that by 2030, between 170,000 and 1 million metric tons of solar panel waste may be generated.

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Source: Peninsula Press

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California’s innovation and prosperity are the consequence of stakeholder-centric environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies furthering sustainability, consistent with Adam Smith’s invisible hand in the free market economy.

California teaches Florida and Texas a lesson in ESG

Back in 2015 when California had the seventh-largest economy in the world, outperforming the rest of the US, economist Irena Asmundson attributed her native state’s trajectory to a government increasingly in harmony with the diversity of its constituents. The cost of clean energy will “continue to fall” because of the convergence of “public policy and people’s preferences,” she said amid the proliferation of solar roofs and zero emission electric vehicles from Balboa Park to Yosemite Valley. “Everyone can see the writing on the wall, that climate change is happening. These clean technologies are going to be more valued in the future.”

That’s especially true for business in the Golden State, whose gross domestic product is poised to overtake Germany’s and where the 30 publicly-traded companies deriving more than half of their revenue from alternative energy are mostly California-based. Those companies delivered a total return of 1,600% the past 10 years, exponentially greater than the 46% income plus appreciation of the world’s 58 traditional fossil-fuel firms as the cost of solar declined 80%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Solar is now the cheapest source of bulk electricity generation in most sunny countries, on a per-MWh basis, according to Jenny Chase, solar analyst at BloombergNEF.

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Source: The Washington Post

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Origo Investments with industry veterans Amond World to develop a refrigerated cold storage facility in the Madera Airport Industrial Park.

Off-grid solar + storage microgrid designed for CA almond cold storage facility

Origo Investments is partnering with industry veterans Amond World to develop a refrigerated cold storage facility in the Madera Airport Industrial Park, which will include two 250,000 sq. ft buildings, each holding approximately 50 million lbs of almonds or other recently harvested crops for farmers and processors.

In order to guarantee energy access, reliability and cost economics while considering the sustainability of the facility, Origo has partnered with Scale Microgrids to design, build, own and operate an off-grid clean energy microgrid providing cheaper, cleaner and more reliable power.

The microgrid system will include 1,200 kW of rooftop solar. Storage of the solar energy will be provided by a 1,200 kW/ 2,400 kWh battery system. The microgrid will include two 1,200 kW enhanced emission-reducing controllable generators.

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Source: Solar Power World

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The UAE envisions cleaning three-quarters of its energy before 2050 and has been investing in clean energy for quite some time.

How solar is powering UAE towards sustainability

What will you do if you have huge football grounds at your disposal? Probably play and remain fit. If you are business-oriented, you would form a league and call the best talents and spectators for the game.

But in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), massive football ground-sized plots are being utilised for installing solar panels.

This blog will elaborate on technologies employed by the UAE in harnessing solar energy and how the oil and gas giant is preparing itself to remain an energy superpower.

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Source: Down To Earth

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