First Solar Agrees to Acquire Multi Gigawatt Utility Scale Photovoltaic Pipeline

First Solar, Inc. today announced it has entered into an agreement to significantly expand its penetration within the U.S. utility solar power market with the acquisition of OptiSolar’s solar project pipeline. The acquisition includes:

• A 550 megawatt (MW) AC solar development project under a power purchase agreement with PG&E
• A project pipeline of additional 1,300MW AC which are in negotiation with Western region utilities for solar development projects
• Strategic land rights of approximately 136,000 acres (approximately 210 square miles) with the potential to deploy up to 19 gigawatts (GW) AC of utility-scale solar power projects

In addition, the core development team responsible for assembling and executing on the solar project pipeline will join the First Solar development team.

First Solar expects to construct solar power plants developed under the acquired solar power project pipeline over the next several years and sell them to a combination of regulated utilities, diversified energy companies and other independent power producers.

First Solar’s investment in the development pipeline and planned projects ensures that at least 400 new green collar jobs will be created in California. First Solar is committed to supporting the planned projects and will use its resources to bring these projects on-line on time. Project development is planned to begin as early as 2010.

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The Grapevine: Eco-Friendly Wineries in California

Just how big is your carbon footprint? Most of us haven’t a clue. We recycle. We use our own shopping bags. Does it make a difference?

You bet your sweet zinfandel!

Fetzer Vineyards, of Mendocino, Calif., made an eco-friendly decision to switch to lightweight glass bottles in 2009. The decision to lose the weight, i.e. drop from a 20.3-ounce bottle to a 17-ounce bottle, will reduce Fetzer’s production of greenhouse gases by 14 percent, or 2,985 tons of carbon dioxide (after factoring in the energy required to produce and ship the heavier glass vs. the new version).

As we know, trees process carbon dioxide and release oxygen. The impact of Fetzer’s decision within the span of one calendar year is the environmental equivalent of planting 70,000 trees and growing them for 10 years. Three years later, the impact will be akin to planting 210,000 trees and letting them grow for 10 years.

The reduction in glass alone (2, 173 tons) eliminates more than 4 million new wine bottles going into circulation each calendar year. If you do your part and recycle the lightweight bottle, you will also reduce the equivalent of 5.9 lbs worth of carbon dioxide emissions per bottle.

But it is the generation of electricity that is the leading contributor to air pollution in the United States. Most generator plants burn fossil fuels; this dumps millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year.

So Fetzer went solar. Its clean energy program, a 901-kilowatt photovoltaic project positioned on the roof of the bottling facility and red barrel room in Hopland, Calif., generates more than a million kilowatt hours of energy a year, supplying them with 80 percent of the electricity needed to function each year.

By sourcing its energy this way, Fetzer has further reduced its carbon footprint by eliminating 960,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year. The impact is akin to taking 80 cars off the road for 12 months.

But Fetzer isn’t the only eco-conscious wine producer on the market. In 2003, Rodney Strong Vineyards, of California, put solar panels on the roof of its 100,000-square-foot barrel house. This reduced energy use by 35 percent and electrical costs by 40 percent. The solar project generates enough clean energy to power 800 homes and reduces their carbon footprint by eliminating more than 8,700 tons of greenhouse gas production over the next 25 years. Again, to use the tree analogy, they’ve done the equivalent of foresting 2,500 acres with trees.

Shafer Vineyards, of California, went 100 percent solar in 2004. Its project will have the air-purifying equivalent of planting 17,000 trees.

Domaine Carneros, also in California, went solar in 2003. The energy generated by the photovoltaic system on its Pinot Noir winery handles 40 percent of the facility’s electrical load. Frog’s Leap Winery generates 100 percent of its own electricity with solar power.

Constellation Wines, now the largest wine company in the world (representing such brands as Simi, Franciscan, Robert Mondavi Winery, Kim Crawford, Ruffino, Tintara, Mouton Cadet, Arbor Mist, Cooks and Vendange), is going solar also. Their project, currently under production, is projected to eliminate the release of 1.6 million pounds of carbon dioxide, 1,636 pounds of sulfur dioxide and 2,909 pounds of nitrogen oxide each year, the equivalent of taking 2,000 cars off the road for 12 months.

When the winery is not using its electricity, that clean energy will be routed to supply energy for a quarter of the 1,695 households in the town of Gonzales, California.

Kudos to Constellation and the rest of the earth-friendly bunch. We should all give them a toast (serving their own eco-friendly wines, of course), then recycle those empty bottles. Together, we can do a world of good.

Lisa Airey
The View

Northern California Geothermal Plant Taps Solar Power

The Northern California Power Agency has completed a solar energy system to generate electricity for a pump station supplying water to one of its geothermal plants at The Geysers.

The $8.2 million solar array taps the sun for power PG&E previously provided to the pump station. The 2.2 million kilowatt hours of electricity generated annually is equivalent to the power needed for 300 homes.

The pump station supplies recycled wastewater from Lake County to a geothermal plant near the City of Clearlake. The NCPA injects the wastewater into the ground to help replenish geothermal steam fields while also providing a disposal solution for Clearlake.

A second, similar solar project under construction near Middletown will power a second NCPA geothermal plant at The Geysers. For more than 25 years NCPA has operated four geothermal power plants at The Geysers.

Based in Roseville, the power agency serves 17 cities and special districts in central and northern California including Ukiah and Healdsburg.

Michael Coit
Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Milpitas Unified School District, Chevron Energy Solutions and Bank of America Announce Completion of 3.4 MW Solar and Energy Efficiency Project

$12 million in savings for education and lower carbon emissions

MILPITAS, Calif., Dec 15, 2008 — Milpitas Unified School District, Chevron Energy Solutions and Bank of America announced today the completion of a 14-site, district-wide solar and energy efficiency project designed to supply 75 percent of the district’s total annual electricity needs through solar energy.    

The 3.4-megawatt solar parking canopies and shade structures generate what is believed to be the highest percentage of solar power for any K-12 school district in the United States and supplies 100 percent of the district’s power during the summer months when California’s peak-demand electricity needs are greatest.    

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New Five Megawatt Solar Project at San Francisco Sunset Reservoir

New Contract with Recurrent Energy Would Bring State’s Largest Solar Photovoltaic and Nation’s Largest Municipal Solar Project to San Francisco’s Biggest Reservoir by 2010

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Today Mayor Gavin Newsom praised the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) for approving a new contract with Recurrent Energy to generate five megawatts (MW) of solar power atop the recently seismically-retrofitted Sunset Reservoir. The project, which is expected to be completed and generating solar power for the City in 2010, will be California’s largest solar photovoltaic system and the nation’s largest municipal solar project. The project will also increase total municipal solar generation in San Francisco by more than 300%, from the current 2 MW to a total of 7 MW of solar power.

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Massive Solar Installation Completed in Southern California

Utility officials said the largest solar panel installation in the state has been completed — the first of some 150 solar projects planned for warehouse and factory roofs in Southern California.

The 600,000 square feet of solar panels on the roof of a distribution center in Fontana, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, will produce enough electricity to power as many as 1,300 homes, said Ted Craver, chairman and chief executive of energy company Edison International on Monday.

The installation was the first component of Edison’s $875 million plan to put solar panels on a total of two square miles of rooftops.

The entire project would provide some 250 million watts of generating capacity, enough to power up to 162,000 homes.

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Virgance Snaps Up 1 Block Off the Grid to Give Solar Buyers More Power

Social activism startup Virgance is no slow mover. The San Francisco startup, which last month took the wraps off two projects aiming to change the behavior of corporations through consumer buying power and help intelligently distribute philanthropic wealth, has acquired a solar-power cooperative effort called 1 Block Off the Grid (or 1BOG) that will give homeowners in 20 cities leverage to go green.

Like Virgance’s other efforts, 1BOG is all about community effort toward a common good. But there’s an added element to 1BOG: It’s also a great way to personally benefit from activism. Under the plan, consumers who want to install solar panels band together into coordinated buying groups to cut a deal for their own home’s installation.

The resulting avingss can be really good: One of the participants in 1BOG’s inaugural program in San Francisco cut 43 percent off list price, according to co-founder Sylvia Ventura. For the average customer, the benefit will probably be closer to about 20 percent off, or $1.50 per watt that’s installed. Apply that to a $25,000 solar system, and you’ve just saved $5,000 - and rebates knock off much of the rest of the price.

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California Far Niente Winery Goes Solar with ‘Floatovoltaics’

Take nearly 1,000 photovoltaic panels and mount them on 130 pontoons floating in a Napa Valley irrigation pond, and what do you have?

A first-of-its-kind solar power array and the latest example of why Northern California’s wine industry - with its scores of entrepreneurs and mavericks - is a leader in embracing solar power.

Representatives of the Far Niente Winery in Oakville pointed out the unique aspects of a $4.2 million solar venture during a tour Wednesday in advance of today’s ceremonial unveiling of the project.

In addition to the 994 floating panels, 306 panels are mounted on an acre of land nearby.

All told, the water- and land-mounted solar array can produce up to 477 kilowatts at peak output - providing more than 100 percent of Far Niente’s electrical needs. It provides power to the historic winery (built in 1885), the tasting room, a carriage house with a collection of classic cars, a commercial kitchen, expansive azalea gardens, fountains, irrigation pumps and 40,000 square feet of wine-aging caves that are three football fields long.

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