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SolarWakeup Live! The Solar Bill of Rights and Solar Rights Alliance with Dave Rosenfeld

SolarWakeup Live!: By Yann Brandt

In this episode I speak with Dave Rosenfeld of the Solar Rights Alliance about the bipartisan legislation that was filed in California last week, the Solar Bill of Rights. The bill is California focused legislation but the story rings true across the Country, consumers deserve the opportunity to go solar without obstruction from the electric monopolies putting barriers in the way.

Dave runs the Solar Rights Alliance which brings together solar consumers and creates the response mechanism to help the solar industry push politics forward. Much like the NRA, SRA members join (for free) when they go solar and that is where the Solar Rights Alliance partners with solar installers to get customers involved. If we all do this together, installers will have a million solar customers to lean on for political response.

This episode is sponsored by UtilityAPI. Get a free data pull for one meter by going to utilityapi.com/Wakeup. Support our sponsors!

Join the Solar Rights Alliance at solarrights.org

Philadelphia To Be Partially Powered By 70-MW Solar Farm

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Leading clean energy developer Community Energy announced the approval of a 70-megawatt (MW) solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in Adams County, Pennsylvania to power government facilities in Philadelphia.

The solar farm, named Adams Solar LLC, will produce enough electricity to operate 22 percent of Philadelphia government buildings by 2020. The project is the largest in Pennsylvania by sevenfold, and a significant step toward the City’s clean energy goal of sourcing 100 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030

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Adams Solar LLC will sell 100 percent of its power under a 20-year contract to The Philadelphia Energy Authority, an independent city agency. The project will generate 156,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of energy in the first year of operation, eliminating more than 4 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the life of the project.

“The Philadelphia solar commitment demonstrates impressive and much-needed leadership on climate change in Pennsylvania,” said Brent Alderfer, Community Energy CEO and co-founder. “As the costs of climate change go up, Philadelphia is showing the way for municipalities to secure reliable, long-term solar power to decarbonize and head off irreversible climate damage.”

An Economic Opportunity Plan (EOP) will use best efforts to incorporate minority, women and disabled-person owned businesses into the Adams Solar LLC project. Job fairs for sub-contractors and the workforce will be held in both Philadelphia and Adams County. Community Energy’s efforts will connect to existing solar training opportunities, such as recent Philadelphia Energy Authority initiatives.

This latest large-scale solar project by Community Energy reflects shifting energy production and sourcing trends that extend well beyond the state of Pennsylvania. According to a report by GTM Research and Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), constituents are calling on government officials to set renewable energy goals that will bring reliable, climate-friendly energy to their communities. As requests for clean power translate into municipal sustainability goals, the industry is witnessing an acceleration of utility-scale project deployment and that growth is expected to continue.

“This project not only helps Philadelphia demonstrate leadership on climate action, but it also makes good economic sense and helps to boost regional job growth in the renewable energy sector,” said Mayor Jim Kenney. “We thank Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, the Philadelphia Energy Authority, and Community Energy, Inc. for their partnership in creating this win-win deal for Philadelphians.”

Dusty Baker Wants To Diversify The Solar Industry Just Like SEIA

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

As most of you know, I’ve long been a crusader for diversity. I helped host the first diversity conference in the hotel industry back in 1998. I took the golf course maintenance industry to task for its lack of diversity in an article headlined, “Why Is This Industry So White?” And I sat on the Minorities in Pest Management committee when I wasn’t writing about cockroaches and bed bugs in the pest management industry.

So diversity is kinda my thing, which is why I am thrilled with the Solar Energy Industries Association’s work on bringing diversity into the solar industry. Abigail Ross Hopper, Andrea Luecke and the teams at SEIA and The Solar Foundation (respectively) have already done more in this industry than any other industry I’ve been in had accomplished – and the beauty is, they’re just getting started.

Dusty Baker, erstwhile baseball player and successful manager, is also interested in diversifying solar, which is why he started Baker Energy Team to focus on the solar industry. Specifically, he joined it after attending several cleantech conferences and noticing there weren’t a lot of people that looked like him, according to a Bloomberg news article about the startup.

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As Bloomberg chronicles,

He founded Baker Energy Team four years ago, between managerial stints with the Reds and Nationals. He wasn’t considering a second act in solar; he already had an upstart wine business. But he took up a longstanding offer to go pheasant hunting with an investment banker he had met in a Chicago hotel bar, which led him to clean-tech conferences in Newport Beach and Las Vegas. “There were no minorities, very few women,” Baker says. “This is an opening for me.”

So far, the business has done a couple of megawatts worth of projects, but Bloomberg reports has has more than 200 MW planned with one of his partners. He’s also looking to start mentorships with historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) for engineering students to try and get them into the solar industry, too.

This is, of course, a no-brainer. I don’t know if anyone at SEIA will read this, but Dusty Baker has to be your keynote speaker at next year’s SPI, doesn’t he? I mean, with your commitment to diversity and talk of expanding the reach of solar beyond its traditional boundaries, it makes perfect sense.

I don’t have his phone number, but it’s got to be in the public somewhere (heck, try him at Baker Energy Team). Get him on board to make the keynote speech, and show yet again that you are committed to making the solar industry the diverse industry we know it must become.

Baseball Legend Dusty Baker Wants to Harness the Power of the Sun

Could Facebook Spread The Solar Gospel Throughout The South?

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Facebook has had some public relations setbacks lately, but one of the items on its long-term agenda that consistently gets it good press is the fact that it has started demanding clean energy – specifically solar – power its energy-intensive data centers.

In Virginia, for example, Dominion Energy had to create an entirely new type of agreement and build several solar farms so the state would be considered as a potential site for one of the data centers. We’ve seen these developments across the country, and it’s one of the unalloyed goods that Facebook has done.

So the question becomes: Could Facebook spread the solar gospel to other southern states? A recent agreement in Georgia provides some evidence that the answer to the question could be yes.

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Walton Electric Membership Corporation (EMC), a consumer-owned utility with a reputation for energy innovation, has executed contracts with two solar developers for three new solar projects as part of its agreement to supply 100 percent renewable energy for Facebook’s data center in Newton County, Georgia. The collaboration is the largest solar development project in Georgia.

Facebook chose Walton EMC as the power supplier for the Newton Data Center when it announced the 970,000 square foot facility in March.

Silicon Ranch and Strata Solar will construct world-class solar power plants that will support the new data center. The facilities will be located in Southwest Georgia.

“We are thrilled to be working with Walton EMC, Silicon Ranch and Strata Solar to bring more than 200 megawatts (mW) of new solar resources to Georgia,” said Rachel Peterson, vice president of data center strategy for Facebook. “We are committed to supporting all of Facebook’s operations with 100 percent renewable energy, and these new solar facilities will help us meet that goal for our Newton Data Center. Developing these resources within the same electric grid that supports our data center will bring even more investment to the region.”

The Newton Data Center is Facebook’s ninth such state-of-the-art facility in the country. The centers are among the most advanced, energy-efficient facilities in the world. They use 38 percent less electricity than the average data center.