Crayola's factory in Pennsylvania is now solar powered

Last week, Crayola officially “plugged in” its new 15-acre solar farm at its Forks Township facility in Pennsylvania.  Comprised of 26,200 solar panels, the crayon manufacturer will generate enough clean, renewable power to produce 1/3 of its annual production of 3 billion crayons.

That’s a pretty nice shade of green!

Celebrating the new Crayola solar farm

The $11.5 million project became reality for Crayola with the help of investment from PPL Corp. and Reading-based UGI Energy Services.  Federal stimulus funds off-set about 10% of the cost.

With Crayola going green by installing the solar farm, the company will eliminate 1,900 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.  The amount of clean solar electricity that will replace grid-based power generated by coal is equivalent to planting 400 acres of forest, or saving 200,000 gallons of gas annually!

The Crayola solar farm is located behind the factory in the Forks Township.

Harvesting solar power could be the 21st century farming practice!

In New Jersey, they’re harvesting more than just vegetables at Seabrook Farms.  The company announced this week that its signed a 15-year deal with SBS Energy Partners to grow solar power, too.

That’s right, Seabrook has agreed to install and maintain over 27,000 solar panels on 21 acres of its land.  Resulting solar power will be enough to generate enough clean solar electricity to power 785 homes, while reducing the energy requirements of the vegetable processing and freezing operations of Seabrook Farms

VP of Engineering at Seabrook Farms, Wes Seabrook, commented:

“We did it for energy savings and cost reductions.”

Solar arrays at Seabrook Farms will generate energy and attention in New Jersey

Initial estimates show that the company will save about $300,000 per year due to the large solar array.

How is that, you ask?

The solar panel installation is mostly aimed to power the vegetable processing and freezing operations.  Each year, Seabrook Farms freezes about 150 million pounds of vegetables!  Construction starts within a month, and the entire system should be operational by the end of 2010.

Chalk up another solar energy point for New Jersey!   We’ve reported on a number of stories showing New Jersey leading the way on this renewable resource.  The state is usually within the top 2-3 states in the entire nation when it comes to solar energy generation, projects and incentives.

According to one website:

“New Jersey has some of the most beneficial solar rebates and incentives in the nation, including the state’s influential renewable energy credit (REC) program that allows renewable electricity providers, as Seabrook Farms will soon be, to sell the power they create on the open market, usually to other companies looking to offset consumption or utilities vying to meet renewable energy standards.”

What’s growing in your backyard?  Why not add a solar energy crop?

Solar gardens include a number of solar panels serving a specific group of people

You might have heard of P-Patches – small plots of land shared by neighbors to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers.  That concept, hundreds of years old, has been brought into the 21st century.  Today, some people are joining together to grow renewable energy!  Community solar gardens are another way that friends and neighbors can join together to increase the common good.

Instead of the expense of installing solar panels on your own home, a “solar garden” can be established in a single off-site location to serve a block, a building, or even a neighborhood.

Think of it as a mini solar farm – owned and operated by a group of people, all of whom draw on the free solar electricity generated by the panels.

The idea of solar gardens is perfect for homeowners with shaded rooftops (not ideal for solar arrays), condominium residents and even people who rent! As explained by Joy Hughes, the innovator/creator of the Solar Panel Hosting Company and SolarGardens.org, solar gardens work as follows:

Solar panels are installed on a nearby rooftop, or as a ground-mounted system on a plot of land owned or leased by the group (in order to install panels on a rooftop not owned by the community, a lease agreement is required with the building owner).  Each individual solar “gardener” must monitor and record the energy production from the specific panels that were installed to benefit that homeowner.  Subtract your energy usage and any extra energy that has been generated could result in a check from the utility company through a net metering or feed-in tariff arrangement.

While some companies like Google offer community solar power programs to their employees (see the video below), the goal of community solar gardens is to ensure that anyone – no matter where they work, their financial status or credit score, can own solar panels.

Harvesting solar power from rooftop solar gardens

For the concept of community solar gardens to really take off, more governments need to adopt laws governing net metering, feed-in tariffs, or offer other tax incentives.  Currently, group solar laws are in effect in Washington state, Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts.  In addition, Oregon, Indiana, Florida and Ontario, Canada authorize feed-in tariffs that allow for potential profit by the owners of solar panels that generate more electricity than used.

While the concept of community solar gardens is still relatively new, we expect it to quickly blossom.  The idea of joining together to lower the cost of a solar panel installation is very attractive to people looking to save on energy costs and lower their carbon emissions.

Maybe you’d like to spear-head a movement in your neighborhood to create a community solar power plant?  You could soon be harvesting solar power from your own 21st century P-Patch!

Rooftop solar panel installations will be big in 2010

Like many solutions to reducing carbon footprints and saving energy, its the little things that make a big difference.  That’s why so many people are thinking big with small solar!

Instead of waiting for your utility company or a private investor to build a mega solar farm, and then transmit solar electricity along a grid to your home, why not install solar panels on your house this month?  You could start saving money and energy right away.

There are many benefits of small solar over utility-scale alternatives:

• Installation is practically immediate (1-5 days typically)
• No need for power lines or a smart grid
• No extensive land use permitting process (though some homeowners associations may make you jump through hoops)
• You are in control – not your utility!  Guard against rising electricity costs and improve the value of your home simply by going solar

Sometimes referred to as “distributed generation,” the idea of generating renewable energy right where it will be used is catching on.  Rooftop solar panel installations, as opposed to sprawling solar fields, can literally help us unplug from coal-based electricity over the course of a weekend.

Yet, more and more utility companies are considering utility scale solar – particularly with the rise of governmental requirements that a percentage of the electricity they provide to customers is not from greenhouse gas emitting sources (for example, in California, 20 percent of the electricity the utilities sell must come from renewable sources by the end of 2010).

Home- or Desert-based solar panels?

Experts predict that the tension between small solar, and large solar farms, will increase – particularly in hot solar markets like California.

On one side of the debate, people react negatively to the massive amount of land required for photovoltaic solar plants.  They push for a more “common sense” approach of generating electricity in the urban core, where it is required, rather than miles away in the desert.

Others, however, believe that small scale solar will not be effective, due to growing solar demand and inefficiencies of rooftop solar panels.  They claim that, Watt for watt, property-based solar panels are more expensive than solar thermal plants.

Small-scale solar needs bigger buy-in from consumers for it to really take hold.  Fortunately, with government tax credits and rebates, plus a 40% recent cost reduction in solar panel prices, property owners have been installing solar panels at a greater pace.  Greater demand will push up production, with a corresponding drop in price.

Add in the fact that expensive, time-consuming land use permits are not required to install panels on a rooftop, and that could just be the tipping point for many people… and corporations!  Even small solar can be implemented on a large scale:

Small solar definitely adds up in a big way.  Since 2007, the number of solar panels installed on rooftops in California generate more than 277 megawatts (MW) of clean electricity.  Let’s put that into perspective by considering the fact that a single MW powers about 750 homes!

Its definitely time to think big with small solar!

Ground breaking on a new Ohio solar energy field next month

Next month, construction will begin on a new solar energy field in Ohio – about 60 miles southeast of Toledo.  While solar farms are springing up all over the U.S. (and the world, in fact), the new Ohio solar energy field will be one of the largest in America.

Here’s the what/when/why about the utility scale solar development:

• Projected to be operational in about 13 months
• Initial cost $30 million
• 83 acre site
• Solar energy generated by the new Ohio solar energy field will provide electricity to American Electric Power
• About 6,000 homes will be served
• Ohio utilities are required by law to purchase or generate 12.5% of the state’s energy from renewable sources like wind and solar
• AEP will be purchasing power from the plant, which will be built and operated by a subsidiary of Juwi Solar Inc., a Germany-based company

No place like Ohio to move forward on a new solar energy field.  In fact, the University of Toledo is a leader in solar power:

A sunny future for solar fields

Getting back to the new Ohio solar energy field, AEP signed a 20-year agreement to purchase power from the utility scale solar facility.  While electricity rates will not decrease for its customers, the company will be in compliance with the Ohio renewable energy law.  And, for those that are concerned about depletion of fossil fuels and/or global climate change, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Observed an AEP spokesperson, Melissa McHenry:

“Solar is really just starting to develop in a way that’s more cost-effective, so it’s important that we support projects like this.”

Expect to see more utilities re-tooling and investing in solar and other renewable energy resources in the months and years ahead.  Ohio may be a leader with respect to its big new solar energy field today, but we’ll be hearing much more about other new utility scale solar projects in the future!

Solar reserve project in Washington State

This week, a giant solar reserve project in Washington State was announced.  It comes on the heels of several additional solar farms that have been publicized this week.  I wonder if there is something in the air (other than the sun), to inspire all this renewable energy development?

The $100 million proposal, called the Teanaway Solar Reserve, will be the biggest solar panel installation in the Pacific Northwest.  Located approximately 80 miles east of Seattle (over the Cascade Mountains) near Cle Elem in the Teanaway Valley, it is expected to create enough solar electricity for 45,000 homes – for a population of about 80,000 residents.

As described on its website:

The Teanaway Solar Reserve is an exciting development for the region given that it will create hundreds of manufacturing jobs, increase demand for goods and services and have a favorable impact on tax revenues. Additionally, it presents rural Kittitas County with the opportunity to become a national leader in solar power. The Reserve was conceived in response to Washington State’s Renewable Electricity Standard, Revised Code of Washington (RCW) Title 19, mandating that the state’s largest utilities derive at least 15% of their retail electric load with renewable energy by 2020.

Teanaway Valley in Washington State

Teanaway Solar Reserve is leasing the 400 acre site from American Forest Holdings LLC.  The solar field will be comprised of about 400,000 photovoltaic panels in the midst of a Ponderosa Pine forest.  Power generated by the project will be grid-tied and is expected to generate 75 megawatts each year.  Perhaps the best fact with respect to the solar reserve project is the fact that, according to U.S. Department of Energy statistics, the Teanaway Solar Reserve will offset about 275-million pounds of carbon dioxide annually, compared to the same amount of energy produced by coal plants.

For any naysayers who are not 100% sure about the viability of solar energy, consider this (also from the Teanaway Solar Reserve website):

Scientists and energy experts agree that we have barely begun to tap the potential of solar energy. In a single 40-minute period, the amount of energy contained in the sunlight striking the earth’s surface is equivalent to a year’s worth of energy consumption worldwide. Photovoltaic solar systems are reliable and easy to maintain. They have virtually no environmental impact, offer a low visual profile, and are free of emissions.

Construction may begin next spring, with the expected completion in fall 2011.