CleanPress

Report: there are no noticeable impacts on the distribution / transmission infrastructures. http://bit.ly/dwbdIV

Californians debate the value of isolated solar power farms versus leveraging distributed local rooftops with solar panels, which are closer to the power need. Of couse, the idea of solar roofs undermine the power utility business model. …

… “California should cover every available rooftop with photovoltaic solar panels, especially commercial buildings. The panels can be installed quickly, unlike large solar power plants … ” …

Via San Francisco Chronicle: Small-scale solar

NRG Energy acquires the First Solar utility-scale photovoltaic solar project in California, called Blythe Solar. The company has established an engineering, procurement and construction contract with First Solar to support the construction completion, testing, and startup of the project. The test phase shouldbe complete by year end. …

… “The 21 megawatt (MW) Blythe Solar Project will be NRG’s first solar generation facility in operation when it comes online later this year. The site was acquired from First Solar, Inc., a leader in advanced and efficient thin film solar technology focused on manufacturing solar panels and developing solar projects for utilities and generators to operate. Located in Riverside County in southeastern California, approximately 200 miles east of Los Angeles, the solar PV field will provide electricity to Southern California Edison (SCE) under a 20-year power purchase agreement. At peak capacity, the site will be able to meet the needs of almost 17,000 homes. ” …

Via NRG Energy: Largest Photovoltaic Solar Power Plant in California

UCLA Institute of the Environment will lead a collaborative effort to plan for regional impacts from climate change. This will include developing responses to alternative future scenarios. …

… “UCLA will not only administer the collaborative, but will also create a technical advisory committee to work with the writers of the action plan. The committee will also provide some of the support science, such as fire hazard models, details on how urbanization impacts water runoff, and – the centerpiece – a localized climate model for the region. ” …

Via UCLA Today: Regional climate plan

America should consider following Europe’s example and begin preparing a strategy to oversee the transition to electric vehicles (EVs). Currently, greener vehicles are in high demand and the trend towards zero emission vehicles will continue to grow ex…

Owners of electric vehicles, such as the Tesla, will be able to recharge their batteries at stations from San Francisco to Los Angeles, as Solar City and Rabobank collaborate to create a solar re-charging corridor. …

… “Solar City, a Silicon Valley neighbor of Tesla, has installed a whole corridor full of charging stations between the Bay Area and LA. ” …

Via NBC Bay Area: Electric Car

SolarCity and Rabobank: Create Corridor of Solar-Powered Electric Vehicle Charging Stations: “San Francisco and Los Angeles each support local infrastructure for EVs and many enterprising EV owners have successfully completed ambitious road trips throughout California and cross-country. Allowing drivers to plug in and charge up at multiple locations along well traveled corridors will dramatically increase the convenience and practicality of the growing number of EVs on American roads. Rabobank branches are positioned all along the high-traffic Highway 101 corridor, close to shops, restaurants and other commercial centers in Northern and Southern California, making them ideal locations for charging stations. ”

Cailfornia puts forward proposal to improve the energy efficiency of televisions by addressing standards for TVs in both active and standby power-consumption modes. Public hearings are scheduled in October and November. …

… “The California Energy Commission proposes to make changes to the Appliance Efficiency Standards contained in the California Code of Regulations (CCR), Title 20, Sections 1601 through 1608. The proposed energy efficiency standards would cover new televisions offered for sale in California beginning in 2011 and 2013. The standards would improve the energy efficiency of televisions without affecting the quality of the television. ” …

Via The California Energy Commission: Televisions Efficiency Regulations

Sierra Magazine’s third annual list of “Cool Schools,” reviews the top 10 greenest colleges and universities. Sierra’s top schools were assessed in ten categories: building policies, energy, food, investment, procurement, transportation; curriculum…

Southern California Edison plan for solarization of large commercial rooftops throughout Southern California has been approved by the local Public Utilities Commission. The solar rooftop program will implement its generating capacity over the next five years with a target of five hundred megawatts. The geographically dispersed generating capacity can tie into local electrical distribution circuits. …

… “During the fall of 2008, SCE completed the first of what eventually will be about 150 sites making up this program, a 600,000-square-foot Fontana, Calif. distribution warehouse roof. The rooftop now holds 33,700 advanced thin-film solar panels with a generating capacity of 2.4 megawatts of direct current power, known as DC power – the largest single rooftop solar photovoltaic array in California. SCE already has begun construction of its second installation atop a 458,000-square-foot industrial building in Chino, Calif. First Solar of Tempe, Ariz. was the winning bidder to supply panels for these first two installations. ” …

Via Southern California Edison: California Regulators Approve Solar Panel Installation Program

View Larger Map