Danville’s Athenian School Turns on New Solar Panels

Officials at the Athenian School have given themselves the top grade for a new solar power system they say will save money and the environment.

The private school in Danville on Wednesday launched its new power system - a baseball field-sized array of panels shaped into the letter “A” on the school’s hillside.

The 220-kilowatt system consists of 1,300 photo voltaic panels that cover 30,000 square feet, according to the school. It will provide half of the school’s electricity needs. It was designed and installed by REC Solar and Mitsubishi Electric and financed through a power purchase agreement with Tioga Energy that the school expects will save about $250,000, or 15 percent of annual energy costs, over 20 years.

The school said over the course of the 20-year agreement, the array will cut out the generation of nearly 12,800 pounds of smog-producing emissions and 66 million pounds of carbon dioxide.

Eric Louie
San Ramon Valley Times

Act Solar Receives 8MW Order for PowerString From Pacific Power Management

Act Solar’s Optimization Solution Boosts Power Output and Extends Life of PV Systems

Act Solar, Inc., a power management company that provides optimization solutions for solar power plants, has received an 8MW order for PowerString from Pacific Power Management, a full service commercial solar provider. Act Solar’s flagship product, PowerString, improves array performance by 6-11% using its patent-pending Injection Boost^TM technology. Extensive field tests and historical modeling have shown that PowerString will cumulatively deliver 40-80% more power over 20-40 years of operations.

“We have a great deal of experience as a solar systems provider and that experience is one of our key competitive advantages,” said Mark Frederick, Managing General Partner of Pac Power. “We are deploying Act Solar’s technology because it enables us to instantly improve system performance, increase the ‘power density’ of our arrays and deliver lower cost solar power, thus strengthening our competitive position. PowerString further protects our investments by assuring optimal performance in the real-world environment of commercial installations.”

“The solar industry is now focused on ensuring maximum performance of PV arrays,” said Act Solar CEO Andrew Foss. “PowerString ushers in the next phase of efficiency and cost reduction by further lowering generation costs and assuring maximum power output over the life of the array. Solar system integrators, operators and financiers will substantially lower their generation costs-per-kWh by deploying PowerString.”

Act Solar products and services dramatically lower the cost of solar generated electricity over the life of a system by allowing each module in an array to perform at its maximum potential, regardless of asymmetric electrical conditions caused by shading, soiling, ground faults, etc. Wireless management features further lower costs by eliminating design constraints and providing full system monitoring, analysis and unmatched diagnostic reporting.

Act Solar

California Based Borrego Solar Systems Secures $14 Million In New Funding

Solar power system installer Borrego Solar Systems Inc said on Wednesday it secured $14 million to help expand its business into the Mid-Atlantic region and develop lower cost systems.

The privately held El Cajon, California-based company, which has largely focused on the California and New England markets, had revenues of about $60 million in 2008.

President Barack Obama is pushing measures to stimulate the growth of solar power, which turns sunlight into electricity, by expanding government subsidies for the clean energy source in an effort to reduce the nation’s use of fossil fuels.

Matt Daily
Reuters

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

Prices For Rooftop Solar Systems Fall As Supply Grows

Here’s a bright spot in an overcast economy: Solar panel prices are tumbling.

Prices for rooftop solar systems, including installation, already have fallen 8% to 10% since October and are expected to drop another 15% to 20% this year.

Fueling the trend are an oversupply of worldwide manufacturing capacity and lower demand, especially in Spain and Germany, which have been growth engines for the industry.

For U.S. homeowners, effective prices are likely to plunge by more than 50% after figuring in a bigger federal tax credit that took effect Jan. 1.

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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

Executives Of The Year: SolarCity’s Rive Brothers Are Bright Lights Of Silicon Valley

FOSTER CITY - Siblings Lyndon and Pete Rive run their company SolarCity Corp. like coaches of a football team.

On offense, Lyndon’s areas of expertise - business development, finance, sales and marketing - are located downstairs at the company’s 28,000-square-foot Foster City headquarters. Upstairs, Pete operates the defense - heavy on the technology, operations, engineering and analytical components.

“Lyndon is more of the extrovert, and I’m more of the introvert,” Pete said.

The brothers, both under 40, have taken their opposite skill sets and split up responsibilities often held by one chief executive.

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Rainy Weather Improves Solar Panel Output in Northern California

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)  — Solar panels produce more electricity during the summer months rather than winter, but California’s rainy winters can be a good thing for producing solar energy.

“There’s actually a weather phenomenon that works to the advantage of solar power here in northern California during the winter and it’s called rain. The rain actually cleans the system which improves production and we find that systems don’t need any cleaning during the winter months where as during the summer time we find that they need two or three cleanings,” said Rob Erlichman, President of Sunlight Electric, a San Francisco solar company. Read more

Solar Meets Polar as Winter Curbs Clean Energy

Old Man Winter, it turns out, is no friend of renewable energy.

This time of year, wind turbine blades ice up, biodiesel congeals in tanks and solar panels produce less power because there is not as much sun. And perhaps most irritating to the people who own them, the panels become covered with snow, rendering them useless even in bright winter sunshine.

So in regions where homeowners have long rolled their eyes at shoveling driveways, add another cold-weather chore: cleaning off the solar panels. “At least I can get to them with a long pole and a squeegee,” said Alan Stankevitz, a homeowner in southeast Minnesota.

As concern has grown about global warming, many utilities and homeowners have been trying to shrink their emissions of carbon dioxide - their carbon footprints - by installing solar panels, wind turbines and even generators powered by tides or rivers. But for the moment, at least, the planet is still cold enough to deal nasty winter blows to some of this green machinery.

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Up on the Roof, New Jobs in Solar Power

MOVE over, Joe the Plumber. Spencer the Solar Panel Installer is here.

In this case, it’s Spencer Bockus, who created solar-powered fans and other contraptions for science fairs as a fifth grader in California. Today, at 22, he is on customers’ roofs, measuring where the shade will hit and hooking up photovoltaic arrays, better known as solar panels, to convert the sun’s energy into electricity.

“Sometimes I’m 50 feet up on a steep roof and it’s so hot the tar is melting onto the bottoms of my sneakers,” he said, “but I’m excited because I’m helping the environment.”

Even in the recession, Mr. Bockus has been putting in plenty of overtime for his company, Akeena Solar, which is based in Los Gatos, Calif., and has offices elsewhere in California and in Colorado and the Northeast.

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