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Solar energy is taking off

By Skye Borden

June 26, 2017

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Last week in the Northern Hemisphere, we experienced the longest day of the year, when the sun showers our half of the world with bright and powerful rays of light.

Here in Missoula, that means more sunny hours to run up Rattlesnake, paddle the big wave or lounge outside with a cold local brew. It also serves as a reminder that today, and every day, we should soak up more of those rays of sunlight to power our communities with inexhaustible, pollution-free, solar energy.

It’s no secret that solar energy is taking off faster than ever before. Just in the United States, we have 43 times more solar today than we did 10 years ago — enough to meet the power needs of 8.7 million households.

So, we’re making progress. But of course it hasn’t always been this way. For so long — since the Industrial Revolution, really — we’ve relied on the extraction of old and dirty forms of technically sun-powered energy; long-dead plants and organic materials, pushed back into the earth and later pumped out as oil, gas, coal, and other fossil fuels.

We know now that extracting and burning these fuels for energy not only harms our environment and our health, but threatens the climate and the stability of the planet.

The time has come to move past such finite, dirty and increasingly expensive resources. Certainly we have the technical potential to directly use clean sunlight for nearly all of our energy needs.

In fact, the United States alone could power itself 100 times over just with the solar power that shines within our borders. Studies show that just around 2 percent of our land mass could power the entire country with solar; panels on American rooftops alone could power nearly 40 percent of the country’s energy needs.

The good news is, we’re reaching a tipping point for renewable energy in the U.S and across the world like we’ve never seen before. Ramping up our renewable goals is not a question of resources, science or technology. It is a question of political will. As more and more leaders in cities, companies, institutions and states commit to goals of using 100 percent renewable energy, we’ll only get there sooner and realize more of the benefits to Montana and our society.

Here in Missoula, we applaud Mayor John Engen for pledging committing to implement the Paris Accord. But, we can do even more. We urge leaders like Engen to commit to a 100 percent renewable energy future; a goal we can and must achieve.

So, on the longest day of the year, we should remember this: every minute of sunlight can be harnessed to create renewable energy to power our lives. We can and must meet this challenge. As we continue to use energy more efficiently, ramp up storage of renewable power and scale up our use of clean energy resources, we’ll make our air and water cleaner, and we’ll leave a legacy that we can be proud of.

Immigrant volunteer helps low-income families harness solar energy

By Karla Peterson

June 27, 2017

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It was a sweltering day in San Diego, and the sun was beating down on the roof of the Oak Park house like the sky had turned its high beams on. It was relentlessly bright and extremely hot. Just like Mohamed Hauter likes it.

Hauter is a volunteer with GRID Alternatives San Diego, the local branch of a national nonprofit that provides solar power to low-income families for a very low fee or no fee at all. At least once a week, Hauter takes a day off from his job as a project leader and software manager at Venator Solutions to help install rooftop solar panels on homes all over San Diego County. He makes up the job time by working weekends. The emotional payoff is more of a 24/7 proposition.

“Oh my gosh, solar energy is just beautiful. There are a lot of bounties in nature, and this is one of them,” the 32-year-old Hauter said, as he took a break from the day’s installation, an all-refugee effort coordinated by the Get Charged Up nonprofit group. “I know people, including my parents, who pay as much for their energy bills as they do for their mortgage. If I can help offset that, I can help make them a lot happier.”

Founded 16 years ago in Oakland, GRID Alternatives set up a San Diego outpost in 2008. Since then, the local branch has installed 842 solar systems and trained more than 2,240 participants through its installation training program. Like many of his fellow volunteers, Hauter came to GRID Alternatives because he wanted to learn more about solar technology. He did not expect the windfall of human perks.

Hauter joined GRID Alternatives in 2014. He quickly became part of the Team Leader Program, which gives participants expanded hands-on training and leadership responsibilities, along with experience that counts toward the National American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners professional installer exam. Hauter is proud to say that he recently received his California Solar Contractor’s license, which brings him closer to starting his own solar business. At this point, he could pack up his hard hat and move on. But he won’t.

“I could have stopped two years ago, and I would have been fine with my training,” said Hauter, who lives in Mira Mesa with his wife and their 2 ½-year-old daughter. “I’m still here because I love it. At the end of the day, when you look at the homeowner’s face as we turn on the system and they see their (electrical meter) going backwards, that means a lot. I grew up poor, so this is important to me.”

One of 10 children, Hauter grew up in Yemen. While it was once the center of civilization on the Arabian peninsula, Yemen is now a war-torn country struggling with extreme poverty and devastating famine. When you are living in the poorest country in the Middle East, it doesn’t take much to make you feel lucky. And by the standards of their homeland, the Hauters were lucky.

Hauter’s father was a farmer who split his time between Yemen and a newsstand he had opened in New York City. The kids didn’t have toys, and they didn’t always have shoes. But they had a roof over their heads and food to eat, and when Hauter was in high school, they had the rare chance to start over in much greener pastures.

In 2002, Hauter and his family moved to Fresno. It was a very good time to be out of Yemen and a terrible time to be a Middle Eastern refugee in the United States.

“It was extremely hard,” said Hauter, who could not speak English when he arrived. “Not because of the language barriers, but more because of all of the racism attached to 9/11. I was bullied a lot, and my name didn’t help. Basically, everyone saw a target on our backs, and they treated us as such. Pretty much all of our neighbors refused to communicate with us. My parents still live there, and they don’t know anyone but two of their neighbors.”

The language barrier fell pretty quickly, as Hauter became fluent in English and began studying computer engineering at Fresno State University. He went to school full time while also working nearly 40 hours a week in his father’s mini-mart. The racial barriers were still an issue, but Hauter and his siblings — most of whom are either college graduates or attending college now — would not be derailed by it.

“We just put our heads down and concentrated on the things that mattered,” Hauter said. “They were rough years, but they paid off.”

He came to San Diego in 2007 to take a job at Lockheed Martin. While he was there, Hauter got his master’s in degree in network engineering through an online program with UC Santa Cruz. When Lockheed closed the San Diego office in 2013, Hauter joined Venator Solutions. Then came GRID Alternatives San Diego and the giving-back light that will not go out.

Last year, the organization gave Hauter the Eugene Tucker Award, which was named after a standout volunteer and bestowed upon people who have followed in his generous footsteps.

“Mohamed is a smart person, and he has a very good way of making abstract concepts simple so that everyone can understand them,” said Laura Galavis, GRID San Diego’s assistant project manager. “He is quiet, but he will give you the information if you are eager to learn. And he is a very good guy. Even though he doesn’t really have to keep volunteering with us, he does. He is our right hand and our left hand. He could probably do the whole job by himself.”

Maybe he could, but he wouldn’t want to. As it turns out, the sun is not the only renewable energy source in Hauter’s life.

“In Fresno, a lot of people die of heat exhaustion because they can’t afford to cool their houses, and that’s sad. I would do anything to help people like that,” Hauter said, as he put on his hard hat and headed back to the roof. “When we came to the United States, we were helped by members of the community. They helped me get to where I am now. It’s my turn to give back.”

Malaysia a world leader in manufacturing of solar power technology, says minister

By Wani Muthiah

June 26, 2017

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ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN: Malaysia is a world leader when it comes to solar power, said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau.

“Malaysia is the second largest manufacturer of photovoltaic modules and the third largest producer of photovoltaic cells in the world,” said Tangau in his speech at the Astana Expo 2017 here on Monday.

He added that four of the world’s top five photovoltaic cell manufacturers are located in Malaysia and said that solar energy is a key contributor to national economic growth due to the nation’s strategic location on the world’s sun belt.

“We recognize that this natural resource is important if we are to be a leader of innovation in green technology,” said Tangau.

Meanwhile, Bioindustrial Bioeconomy Corporation senior vice president Zainal Azman Abu Kassim said in his speech that green innovations were one of the catalysts of sustainability in bio-based industries and the bio-economy.

“Our presence here at the Astana Expo 2017 illustrates how seriously we take green innovations in driving our bio-economy forward while finding solutions for global sustainability issues through cooperation with international players,” he said.

Zainal Azman added that Malaysian companies participating in the Expo were there to foster economic growth through the sharing of innovative technologies, supporting biodiversity and environmental sustainability.

Astana Expo 2017 kicked off on June 10 with the participation of some 100 nations and more than 10 international organisations in various events.

The main theme of the 93-day expo is “Energy of the Future”, which addresses the global problem of energy consumption.

Future Energy: China leads world in solar power production

By Chris Baraniuk

June 22, 2017

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Ten years ago, Geof Moser had just graduated with a master’s degree in solar energy from Arizona State University – but he didn’t feel much opportunity lay at his feet in his home country.

So he headed for China.

“The solar industry was fairly small and there weren’t a lot of jobs,” he remembers. “Just a few for installation.” But the Chinese government had big ambitions to expand solar and Moser saw his chance.

He spent some years accumulating knowledge about the Chinese solar industry, before co-founding Symtech Solar, which designs solar panel systems using Chinese parts.

Market access

The idea is to make it easy for organisations outside China to access components without the hassle of having to source and assemble lots of different parts.

“You don’t want to buy a car door or a car engine, you want to buy a car,” he explains.

Symtech now has a portfolio of small projects dotted around the world and it is hoping to increase installations in the Middle East, thanks to a new office in Oman.

Moser isn’t the only US entrepreneur who turned to China. Alex Shoer, of Seeder, helped to launch a business that brings solar panels to the roofs of buildings within the country.

He deals with foreign businesses who, say, want to make their Beijing office a little greener. The firm says it has so far erected three megawatts’ worth of solar installations, with another 28 megawatts on the way for various clients.

“We will source the capital to finance, pay for the whole project and then sell the power at a discount,” Shoer says. Again, the model relies on sourcing the right parts at a favourable cost.

These kind of installations are known as “distributed generation” projects, in which electricity is produced on a small scale, at or very near to a specific point of consumption.

Within China, distributed generation is growing at an extraordinary rate, driven in large part by farmers who use the panels to power agricultural equipment that might not be connected to the grid.

Shoer comments that he was attracted by Beijing’s commitment to the solar industry. For years it has encouraged local authorities to do what they can to boostproduction, research and development.

Renewables growth

China’s rapid expansion of renewable energy facilities has since caught headlines around the world.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the country installed more than 34 gigawatts of solar capacity in 2016 – more than double the figure for the US and nearly half of the total added capacity worldwide that year.

Early figures for 2017 show China has added another eight gigawatts in the first quarter alone.

“It’s a huge market,” says Heymi Bahar at the IEA. Most of the world’s solar cells are made in China and Taiwan, he adds – more than 60%.

The impressive scale doesn’t stop there. The largest solar farm in the world – Longyangxia Dam Solar Park, all 30sq km of it – is a Chinese project. And the country recently opened the world’s largest floating solar farm, in Huainan, Anhui Province.

It has been constructed over an old coal mine, which over the years had filled with rainwater. Sungrow, the Chinese firm that provided solar cells for the venture, says its system automatically monitors current and voltage generated by the cells, along with humidity, which can affect their efficiency.

Because of the abundant water nearby, cleaning the panels – an endless task for solar farmers – will be easier, according to those behind the facility.

These mega projects have become possible, and indeed more common, thanks to the rapidly falling cost of solar cells.

“What we were all hoping for 20 years ago when the idea of cheap solar was just a dream, was that someone would come into this on an industrial scale and drive down the cost,” recalls Charles Donovan, at Imperial College Business School.

“That is exactly what China has done.”

But today, solar energy production accounts for just 1% of China’s total energy demand. A huge 66% of demand still comes from coal, something that the country’s National Energy Administration wants to change drastically by 2050 – not least because of China’s well-known air pollution problems.

But by that key date of 2050, a very different mix of energies could be powering China, should some projections become reality. One government report even suggested that renewables could supply 86% of the country’s energy needs, with solar providing around a third of that.

Can China do it? According to one expert observer, the answer is, “maybe”.

“What China is trying to do is rationalise a very large, fast growing system,” explains Jeffrey Ball at Stanford University’s Center for Energy Policy and Finance. Ball is the lead author of a recent report that details China’s success as an innovator in the solar panel industry.

Lofty ambitions

But as Ball points out, the revolution has not been without teething issues. For one thing, Chinese subsidies, which some argue are unsustainable, have not always been smoothly administered. The “feed-in tariff”, for example, often offered to solar companies that generate electricity, has sometimes been paid late.

“The government is often a year or more late in delivering that revenue – that wreaks havoc with the financials on a project,” says Ball.

The value of subsidies has recently been cut, too. What’s more, China’s large solar farms are largely in less densely populated areas in the west of the country, far from population centres like Beijing or Shanghai, in the east.

Building extra grid capacity to transfer it is time-consuming and expensive. This leads to a problem known as curtailment – a solar farm produces, say, 20 megawatts of electricity but can only find buyers for 15 megawatts.

“Depending on who you talk to in the provinces that have by far the largest amount of solar production, curtailment rates are 30% and in some cases significantly higher than 30% – that’s extraordinary and that’s a real problem,” explains Ball.

Whether China can achieve its lofty ambitions for renewable energy remains to be seen – but it has certainly proved its ability to foster a world-leading solar industry. For US entrepreneurs like Geof Moser, that’s enough to propel his own business towards further growth for now.

“The reality is that renewable energy is very cheap – especially solar energy,” he says. “And the reason is China.”

Think Wind Turbines And Solar Panels Are Fads? Think Again

By Travis Hoium

June 17, 2017

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Renewable energy often gets dismissed as a relatively insignificant part of the power picture because it doesn’t generate as much of America’s electricity as coal, natural gas, or nuclear plants. The president of the United States has even said he doesn’t think wind “works,” and he’s certainly no fan of solar energy.

But the opinions that wind and solar are fads, or are too minor to care about, or “don’t work” are simply wrong. In fact, wind and solar will soon overtake nuclear for the percentage of U.S. power they generate, and coal could be next.

Wind and solar are becoming big business

New data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows that wind and solar combined to provide 10% of U.S. net electricity generation in March 2017, up from about 1% a decade ago. Wind accounted for 8% during the month and solar accounted for 2%.

Chart showing growth of wind and solar energy in the U.S. over the last decade.

(Image Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration)

You can see in the chart that wind power generation has grown by nearly 10 times in the last decade, and solar generation has gone from almost nothing in 2011 to a fairly impressive 2% in March. Solar energy has seasonal swings, but with more installations being completed every month and the summer months being the highest generation, we can expect more records for solar generation as April, May, and June data is reported.

Where the wind blows and the sun shines

The report also showed where wind and solar power was generated in 2016. Some of the states that produce a lot of wind and solar electricity are fairly predictable: California got 20% of its electricity from wind and solar, and Texas got 13% of its electricity from wind (solar was almost negligible in Texas).

But some states that get huge percentages of their electricity from wind and solar may surprise you: Iowa (37%), Oklahoma (25%), North Dakota (21%), and Kansas (30%).

And some surprises went in the other direction: Consider that Arizona only gets 5% of its electricity from wind and solar, despite having one of the best environmental profiles for solar in the country.

Where’s the money in renewable energy? 

The rapid growth of wind and solar is good news for the renewable energy industry. On the wind side, fast adoption is propelling a growing business for General Electric (NYSE:GE), though wind remains a small percentage of its business overall. In solar, First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) and SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) are two of the leading U.S. companies.

But a bet on the continuing and profitable growth of renewable energy, no matter which energy source or what manufacturer, is better made by putting money into utilities. NRG Energy created NRG Yield (NYSE:NYLD) to own most of its renewable projects, while NextEra Energy created NextEra Energy Partners (NYSE:NEP). Those yield co’s have plenty of opportunities for growth, and already hold long-term contracts to sell renewable energy to utilities that ensure dividends for decades to come.

Now that wind and solar are providing 10% of U.S. electricity production, it’s clear that renewable energy is far more than a fad. And the pace of installations is accelerating, despite the fact that government subsidies are being phased out. Wind and solar energy should be taken seriously in the U.S. power picture because their share and impact are only going to grow.

Mark Cuban predicts this will make someone a trillion dollars
Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban recently predicted that an emerging tech trend would make someone $1 trillion. That lucky future trillionaire is just the beginning — and the trend itself could be worth as much as $19.9 trillion.

Fortunately, this hasn’t yet gone mainstream — most people haven’t recognized the scale of opportunity here.

We believe that one market expert has the right answer for investors looking to get in early — and potentially win big.

Sun Tech: Solar Powered Gadgets For Summer (or any time of year!)

We’re all about solar panels- but you can power far more than your house using energy from the sun! Check out these nifty tools and toys to help you out around the house, the beach, the pool, or wherever your summer takes you!

Solar Speakers – keeps the pool party going without having to trip over cables or change batteries!

Solar Phone Chargers – Incredible affordable and incredibly useful for maintaining your emergency calling ability on off-the-grid adventures!

Solar Headphones – Another convenient way to skip both tangling connection chords AND constantly replacing batteries!

Solar Fans – The one linked here is an attic exhaust fan (keep your upper levels cool and circulating), but porch and even desktop versions exist as well!

Solar Flashlights – Perfect for camping and backpacking, where weight and storage space are key and ditching even small batteries goes a long way! (Plus, you never have to find your way to your tent in the dark!)

Solar Decorations – A way to transform your yard or porch that won’t be heavy on the electric bill, and will stand out to your neighbors and friends!

Solar Keyboard – Even through your office window enough sun can sneak in to power your typing!

Solar Walkway Lamps – I had these along the walkway to my front door growing up, and when relatives come over or when there’s snow and ice everywhere, and especially when little trick-or-treaters come to your door, it’s so nice to be able to light their path!

And just to add in a couple honorable mentions:

–Solar Cookers, discussed in an earlier blog post, use reflection to concentrate heat from the sun on your food and make snacks, no wires or electricity necessary!

-Using the sun’s energy the good old-fashioned way: Gardening! It’s are always a great way to teach kids about plants, give them a project in responsibility (that’s not as expensive or intense as a pet), and for children and adults alike, to grow colorful flowers, tasty herbs, and even fruits and veggies to freshen up the dinner table!

Know of any other useful gadgets or toys that run on sun? Let us know: @SecondGenEnergy on Twitter or on our Facebook page, we’d love to hear from you!

By Danica Bergmann

Solar power forecast to shut down coal plants faster than expected

By Jess Shankleman and Hayley Warren

June 17, 2017

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Solar power, once so costly it made economic sense only in spaceships, is becoming cheap enough that it will push coal and even natural-gas plants out of business faster than previously forecast.

That’s the conclusion of a Bloomberg New Energy Finance outlook for how fuel and electricity markets will evolve by 2040. The research group estimated solar already rivals the cost of new coal power plants in Germany and the U.S. and by 2021 will do so in quick-growing markets such as China and India.

The scenario suggests green energy is taking root more quickly than most experts anticipate. It would mean that global carbon dioxide pollution from fossil fuels may decline after 2026, a contrast with the International Energy Agency’s central forecast, which sees emissions rising steadily for decades to come. “Costs of new energy technologies are falling in a way that it’s more a matter of when than if,” said Seb Henbest, a researcher at BNEF in London and lead author of the report.

The report also found that through 2040:

  • China and India represent the biggest markets for new power generation, drawing $4 trillion, or about 39 percent all investment in the industry.
  • The cost of offshore wind farms, until recently the most expensive mainstream renewable technology, will slide 71 percent, making turbines based at sea another competitive form of generation.
  • At least $239 billion will be invested in lithium-ion batteries, making energy storage devices a practical way to keep homes and power grids supplied efficiently and spreading the use of electric cars.
  • Natural gas will reap $804 billion, bringing 16 percent more generation capacity and making the fuel central to balancing a grid that’s increasingly dependent on power flowing from intermittent sources, like wind and solar.

BNEF’s conclusions about renewables and their impact on fossil fuels are most dramatic. Electricity from photovoltaic panels costs almost a quarter of what it did in 2009 and is likely to fall another 66 percent by 2040. Onshore wind, which has dropped 30 percent in price in the past eight years, will fall another 47 percent by the end of BNEF’s forecast horizon.

That means even in places like China and India, which are rapidly installing coal plants, solar will start providing cheaper electricity as soon as the early 2020s.

“These tipping points are all happening earlier and we just can’t deny that this technology is getting cheaper than we previously thought,” said Henbest.

Coal will be the biggest victim, with 369 gigawatts of projects standing to be cancelled, according to BNEF. That’s about the entire generation capacity of Germany and Brazil combined.

Capacity of coal will plunge even in the U.S., where President Donald Trump is seeking to stimulate fossil fuels. BNEF expects the nation’s coal-power capacity in 2040 will be about half of what it is now after older plants come offline and are replaced by cheaper and less-polluting sources such as gas and renewables.

In Europe, capacity will fall by 87 percent as environmental laws boost the cost of burning fossil fuels. BNEF expects the world’s hunger for coal to abate starting around 2026 as governments work to reduce emissions in step with promises under the Paris Agreement on climate change.

“Beyond the term of a president, Donald Trump can’t change the structure of the global energy sector single-handedly,” said Henbest.

All told, the growth of zero-emission energy technologies means the industry will tackle pollution faster than generally accepted. While that will slow the pace of global warming, another $5.3 trillion of investment would be needed to bring enough generation capacity to keep temperature increases by the end of the century to a manageable 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius), the report said.

The data suggest wind and solar are quickly becoming major sources of electricity, brushing aside perceptions that they’re too expensive to rival traditional fuels.

By 2040, wind and solar will make up almost half of the world’s installed generation capacity, up from just 12 percent now, and account for 34 percent of all the power generated, compared with 5 percent at the moment, BNEF concluded.

Solar power emerges where oil and gas once dominated

By Ryan Maye Handy

June 13, 2017

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When oil prices tanked two years ago, hundreds of Pecos County workers lost jobs working at oil and gas companies in the prolific Permian basin. Last year, the rural county lost around 20 percent of its $2.5 billion tax value.

But the unemployed residents weren’t out of work for long. Most of the 300 to 400 oil field workers found jobs installing solar panels beneath the hot and abundant West Texas sun.

Pecos now has five operational solar farms, large projects that meet the definition of utility-scale – having the capacity to generate at lease 1 megawatt, enough to power about 200 houses on a hot Texas day.

All told, the projects, including two likely to get underway within the next few years, are expected to add hundreds of millions of dollars to the tax base of the county, where solar panels stand on the same property as gas flares and drilling rigs.

“It’s a great marriage,” said Doug May, the executive director of the Fort Stockton Economic Development Council in the county.

Pecos County, which has only three people in each of its 5,000 square miles, has become a hub for utility-scale solar power. Across the nation, solar farms are poised to become a boon for rural economies that have been hard hit by the decline of industries such as agriculture, manufacturing and coal, as well as the boom-and-bust cycles of oil and gas.

In North Carolina, for instance, farmers lease fallow land to solar panel companies; in West Texas, counties like Pecos, once reliant on oil and gas extraction, are diversifying through solar and wind power.

Utility-scale projects are eligible for a state tax abatement – up to 80 percent for 10 years – an incentive that has drawn projects to places like Pecos County. Texas’ utility-scale installations, at around 783 megawatts, are expected to double in Texas this year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, a national trade group.

Beyond abundant sunshine, the county’s other draws are its many transmission lines that feed into the electric grid that serves the state’s population centers. More transmission lines are expected to be added in 2019 and 2020, likely driving another burst of solar installations, May said.

If that happens, solar power will exceed the county’s 700 megawatts of wind energy. In addition, solar companies will employ locals even as the price of oil remains stubbornly below $50 a barrel.

“It has basically helped to compensate for the boom and bust cycle,” said Colin Meehan, the director of regulatory and public affairs for Houston-based First Solar, which has two solar farms in Pecos. “They see it as just another source of revenue.”

Pecos is a model of how rural counties can benefit from renewable energy, said Helen Brauner, the director of origination strategy for 7x Energy, an Austin-based utility-scale solar company. In Austin on Tuesday, Brauner and other solar executives gathered at a conference hosted by the Solar Energy Industries Association.

“The typical 100-megawatt solar project should give the county about $30 million in property tax revenue” over the duration of the project, Brauner said.

The conference attendance nearly doubled this year to more than 400, a sign that Texas is primed for more investment in solar, conference organizers said.

Nonetheless, the growth of utility-scale solar in Texas suffered a setback in April of last year when Sun-Edison, the world’s largest renewable energy developer, filed for bankruptcy, delaying two major projects.

In September, Houston-based NRG Energy bought one the projects, the 154-megawatt Buckthorn solar farm in Pecos County. When the project is done next year, its sole customer will be Georgetown, a city of about 60,000 north of Austin.

Harnessing solar energy to fight local hunger

By Louis Medina

June 12 2017

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Electricity is energy. Fuel is energy. Food is energy. Manpower is energy.

All those forms of energy are essential to the running of Community Action Partnership of Kern’s Food Bank, whose food distribution poundage increased by more than 50 percent, from 9 million in 2013 to 13.6 million in 2016, to keep up with local hunger needs amplified by job losses in the agriculture and oil industries due to the drought and plunging oil prices during the same time frame.

Electricity is needed to keep the Food Bank office and warehouse operational — including 40,500 cubic feet of walk-in fridge and freezer space to ensure proper storage of fruits, vegetables, meat, and other fresh and frozen foods.

The Food Bank’s fleet of trucks needs fuel to get nutritious food to well over 100 partnering distribution locations throughout Kern County’s 8,200 square miles.

The more than 1 million pounds of food the Food Bank distributes monthly helps keep thousands of folks — seniors, families with children, homeless individuals, at-risk veterans — throughout the community from going hungry.

Our staff members and volunteers provide the manpower to collect, sort and transport the food that is either purchased or donated for the benefit of the food insecure among us.

Well, the CAPK Food Bank will soon be using another type of energy — Kern County’s abundant solar power — to significantly reduce its electricity costs.

Thanks to generous funding that includes grants from the city of Bakersfield and Kern County Community Development Block Grant program, The Bakersfield Californian Foundation and Southern California Gas Company, the Food Bank warehouse will soon boast 504 roof-mounted photovoltaic panels that will generate 254,787 kilowatt-hours of energy annually — enough to reduce its electricity costs by close to $50,000 a year.

This will result in savings and operational efficiencies that can be reinvested into the acquisition and distribution of food for the hungry.

“The grants that are allowing us to do this work are like a gift that keeps on giving,” said CAPK Executive Director Jeremy Tobias. “From now until the lifespan of these panels ends, we’re going to be receiving that money back every year. Instead of writing a check for utilities, we can spend that amount on food. It’s like an investment, almost. It’s a gift for the entire community.”

And grant dollars are staying in Kern County, as the work has been contracted to local firm A-C Solar, a subsidiary of A-C Electric Company. A-C Solar Energy Manager Jeff Petrini, who has assisted a number of nonprofits, including churches, with their commercial solar installation, knows how important grant dollars are for these organizations.

“Solar is an expensive proposition and having a zero-out-of-pocket financing option or a grant is really the only way it can happen for nonprofits,” he said, because they cannot enjoy the tax breaks for-profit companies do on their solar installs.

“The cost of energy is going up and up on a yearly basis,” Petrini said. “Being able to help nonprofits to better utilize the funds they have, for the purpose that they’re designed for, is important to us.”

The actual date for the “switch throwing party” for the CAPK Food Bank’s solar project has not been set yet, but is anticipated for some time in mid-to-late summer. CAPK is looking forward to making it a community event to inspire other nonprofits to follow suit and think outside the box to generate savings that can be invested in the real work at hand: serving people.

China Turns On The World’s Largest Floating Solar Farm

By Jason Daley

June 7 2017

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Last week, workers switched on a solar energy plant capable of producing 40 megawatts of power, which floats on a manmade lake in China’s Anhui province near the city of Huainan, reports Sarah Zheng at the South China Morning Post. The array is the largest floating solar project in the world, though at the brisk pace China is building new renewable projects it’s unlikely to hold that title very long.

Built by the company Sungrow Power Supply, the power plant will produce enough energy to power 15,000 homes, Zheng reports. While the company has not revealed the exact size of the operation, it produces twice as much energy as the previous holder of the largest-floating-solar-plant title, which is located in the same area and was launched by the company Xinyi Solar in 2016.

Anhui province is a coal-rich region, and the Sungrow plant is located on a lake that was once the site of intensive mining. Heavy rains filled the area with water. As Zhen reports, the depth of the lake varies from 12 feet to 30 feet.

So why build solar plants on top of lakes and reservoirs? Fiona Harvey at The Guardian explains that building on bodies of water, especially manmade lakes that are not ecologically sensitive, helps protect agricultural land and terrestrial ecosystems from being developed for energy use. The water also cools the electronics in the solar panels, helping them to work more efficiently, reports Alistair Boyle for The Telegraph. For similar reasons Britain built a 23,000-panel floating solar farm on the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir near Heathrow airport in 2016 to help power the Thames Water treatment plant.

The Sungrow solar farm is just one tiny piece in China’s push towards renewable energy. According to Irina Slav at Business Insider, the country recently announced it would invest $361 billion in renewable power by 2020, and by 2022 could produce 320 gigawatts of wind and solar power and 340 gigawatts of hydropower. Zheng reports that currently renewables are responsible for 11 percent of China’s energy and may reach 20 percent by 2030.

While the floating solar plant is the largest in the world, it pales in comparison to some of China’s non-floating solar projects. The Longyangxia Dam Solar Park on the Tibetan plateau hosts 4 million solar panels that produce 850 megawatts of energy. Even that will soon be eclipsed by a project in the Ningxia Autonomous Region, which will have 6 million solar panels and produce 2 gigawatts of power.