A total of 171 solar panels sit atop the Memorial Center at St. Anthony Parish in Sacramento, CA that powers the entire parish campus.

It began with a bright idea.

In early 2020, members of the newly formed creation care committee at St. Anthony Parish, in Sacramento, were exploring ways to raise ecological issues within the parish. They had begun education efforts around Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home” for themselves and the rest of the parish, including through the weekly bulletin. Now they were looking for an anchor project to put Catholic teaching about the environment into action.

They decided to install solar panels on the roof of the parish’s Memorial Center, and by May 2022, the full 82-kilowatt, 181-panel system was ready to power up, producing enough energy to cover the parish’s electricity needs. But the solar project also served as a first step toward flipping the switch on a wider effort to electrify the entire Sacramento Diocese in living out the message of Laudato Si’.

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Source: EARTHBEAT

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Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a crowd of more than 100 people celebrated a completed solar rooftop project at AltaSea.

The flood of sunshine in San Pedro on Friday morning, April 21, was apt, as as former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a crowd of more than 100 people celebrated a completed solar rooftop project at AltaSea, the marine science lab at the Port of Los Angeles.

The 180,000-foot panels cover four acres of rooftop on the old port warehouses that now are now home to the ambitious, 35-acre research hub, the largest such center in the nation dedicated to creating and powering ocean-based jobs in the emerging blue economy.

Schwarzenegger, who climbed the scaffolding steps and did the honors to turn on the rooftop solar project that will power the AltaSea campus and 700 local homes, marveled at the campus’s progress.

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Source: Daily Breeze

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Peninsula Clean Energy is executing 20-year PPAs to install 1.7MW of solar power on 12 public buildings in San Mateo County & Los Banos City.

As one of the first public agencies nationwide to take advantage of expanded federal renewable energy incentives, Peninsula Clean Energy has reached innovative agreements with nine cities in California and San Mateo County to install solar and future battery storage on public buildings.

Peninsula Clean Energy is executing 20-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) to install 1.7 MW of solar power on 12 public buildings in San Mateo County and the city of Los Banos.

The agreements include solar power systems at the San Mateo County Human Services Agency Center in Redwood City; Atherton Town Hall; Brisbane Mission Blue Center; Colma Community Center; Hillsborough Public Works Yard; Los Banos Community Center; Los Banos Wastewater Plant; Millbrae Town Center complex; Millbrae Recreation Center; Pacifica Community Center; San Bruno Aquatics Center; and the San Carlos Youth Center. In addition, at least three communities will be adding battery storage to provide backup power.

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Source: Solar Builder Mag

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The San Diego Blood Bank has completed its “solar- plus-storage” project to provide shade and 100% renewable energy.

The San Diego Blood Bank has completed its “solar- plus-storage” project to provide shade and 100% renewable energy to help charge the batteries on the bank’s two new bloodmobiles, it was announced Tuesday.

The project includes rooftop solar with battery storage, two bloodmobiles outfitted with batteries and solar panels to replace the two diesel power generators needed to operate the lights, air conditioning and equipment on these new buses, and two Tesla blood delivery vehicles, one of which was funded by the Walter J. and Betty C. Zable Foundation.

“By switching to solar power, we are not only more environmentally friendly but also benefiting from significant cost savings,” said San Diego Blood Bank CEO Doug Morton. “Furthermore, our donors will have a more pleasant experience during mobile drives as there will be no generator fumes or noise surrounding the two new bloodmobiles while they wait for their appointments.”

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Source: TIMES of San Diego

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The Sapphire PV park is expected to generate 375,800 MWh of clean energy annually, equal to the consumption of over 58,000 local homes.

EDF Renewables North America, part of French electric utility group EDF SA (EPA:EDF), has clinched a power off-take deal for a 117-MW solar project in California with Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA).

The power purchase agreement (PPA) calls for the US utility to procure the power output and receive renewable attributes from the Sapphire solar project. The deal has a 20-year term, EDF Renewables said on Tuesday.

To be installed on private land in California’s Riverside County, the Sapphire photovoltaic (PV) park is expected to generate 375,800 MWh of clean energy annually, equal to the consumption of over 58,000 local homes. It will deliver electricity to SCPPA’s Participating Members, Anaheim, Pasadena and Vernon. Power generation is due to be launched by end-December 2026.

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Source: Renewables Now

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Allan Hancock College has partnered with San Francisco-based ForeFront Power to develop a 2.4 megawatt solar energy system.

Allan Hancock College is continuing its efforts to create a more sustainable campus by installing solar panel canopies above parking lots at the college’s Santa Maria campus.

The college partnered with San Francisco-based ForeFront Power to develop a 2.4 megawatt solar energy system that contains 6,000 solar panels installed across multiple parking canopies located in parking lots 1, 2, 4, 8 and 10. The solar panel canopies will not only provide valuable shade for students, parents, faculty, staff and other visitors to campus but are also expected to save $4 million in electricity costs over the 20-year lifespan of the solar energy system.

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Source: Santa Maria Times

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DSD Renewables and Black Bear Energy have installed 3,500 solar panels on vehicle canopies at a campground in southern California.

DSD Renewables and Black Bear Energy have announced the completion of a 1.5 MW solar project in Menifee, California, at the Wilderness Lakes campground. They mounted the solar arrays on parking canopies. 

The facility is expected to generate 2.4 million kWh of energy per year, in order to meet about 50% of the total energy use at the campground. The site has more than 500 RV campsites and other facilities. 

The United States has roughly 2 billion parking spots. If 25% of those parking spots were fitted with 2.88 kW (DC) per spot, the capacity would reach 1.44 TW in total. Assuming a lower-than-average generation capacity factor of 15%, due to the sub-optimal angling of the panels, these solarized parking spots would generate 1.89 petawatt-hours (PWh) of electricity. The total electrical consumption of the United States is currently around 4 PWh per year. 

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Source: PV Magazine

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The CPUC approved a plan that will set the state on a course to adding 86,000 megawatts of new resources to the grid by 2035.

California’s already hugely ambitious clean energy goals have just gotten even bigger. Now the state’s utilities, regulators, clean-energy developers and transmission grid planners must figure out how to achieve the colossal new buildout needed to meet these goals.

On Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission approved a plan that will set the state on a course to adding 86,000 megawatts of new resources to the grid by 2035. That’s ​more than a doubling of the nameplate capacity” of 75,000 megawatts that constitutes the state’s existing resource mix, CPUC President Alice Reynolds said during Thursday’s meeting.

The new integrated resource plan calls for 54,000 megawatts of new renewable resources, most of it solar power, as well as wind power built inside and outside the state’s borders. It also includes more than 28,000 MW of batteries to store that power when it’s produced so it can be used when the state’s grid needs it.

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Source: Canary Media

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The CSP pilot project will showcase CSP technology, which could be useful for various clean energy purposes,

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced that it has broken ground on the Generation 3 Particle Pilot Plant (G3P3), a concentrating solar-thermal pilot project, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The project will showcase concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) technology, which could be useful for various clean energy purposes, from producing power to providing long-term energy storage.

“Next-generation CSP has the potential to be a game-changer,” Alejandro Moreno, acting assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the Department of Energy, said in a statement. “This pilot facility will demonstrate how CSP systems can meet the challenges of providing long-duration energy storage while reducing costs and complexity for solar thermal technology. At the same time, it also provides a pathway to commercialization for industrial process heat.”

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Source: Eco Watch

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Arevon Energy and San Diego Community Power broke ground on the Vikings Energy Farm, a solar + storage power plant in Holtville, CA.

Arevon Energy and San Diego Community Power broke ground on the Vikings Energy Farm, a solar + storage power plant in Holtville, California. The project was first announced in May 2021.

The Vikings Energy Farm is among the first solar peaker plants in the United States. The facility’s unique 1:1 configuration — 137 MW of solar, coupled with 150 MW/600 MWh of battery energy storage — will allow it to shift daytime solar production to late afternoon and evening hours, providing on-peak energy whenever necessary. The Vikings Energy Farm will feature the Tesla Megapack for battery energy storage and First Solar thin-film solar modules.

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Source: Solar Power World

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