By Caleigh Wells for KCRW.
Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration
California's newest infrastructure project will hit two proverbial climate birds with one stone. And Los Angeles city officials just decided last week to try one of its own.
The plan is to cover some of California's exposed water canals with solar panels. It will prevent evaporation amidst the state's historic drought. It will also create renewable energy as the state attempts to meet lofty decarbonization goals.
Piloting a win-win
The idea gained traction in California after researchers at UC Merced studied the possibility on the state's canals last year.
"If we put solar panels over all 4000 miles of California's open canals, we estimated we could save 65 billion gallons of water annually," says Brandi McKuin, who led the study. "That's enough for the residential water needs of 2 million people - enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland."
Researchers found the panels could also generate 13 gigawatts of renewable power. That's about half of the capacity needed by 2030 to meet the state's goals. "The political wind is at our back right now and that's another reason this is gaining traction," she says.
It's gained so much traction that the Turlock Irrigation District in Northern California is breaking ground on its first solar canal installation as soon as the equipment arrives early next year. They will try it out on a couple miles of their canals first.
"We thought we were the absolute perfect agency to pilot it, since we're both the water agency and the electric utility," says Josh Weimer, external affairs manager with the Turlock Irrigation District.
Besides the water and power benefits, Weiner says they're hoping the solar panels will stop weeds from growing in their aqueduct. "We spend over $1 million a year to clean our canal system to make sure that those weeds are not blocking drops or side gates that really would jeopardize the reliable delivery of irrigation water," he says.
It also skirts around one of the biggest problems with solar energy: land use. Large solar farms can disrupt the habitat of plants and animals that live there. Where there are canals, there's already ecological disruption, so there's no added ecological harm to add panels on those acres. Plus, covering state-owned aqueducts with solar panels means no one has to buy or rent a new piece of land.
Lessons from the other side of the world
A similar project in India is more than a decade old. The first project only covered 750 meters and produced about a megawatt of power, but they've added several more projects since then. It's an idea that makes a lot of sense for California: We've got the largest state water project in the country. Most of the state's water comes from the northern half of California, and most of it gets used in the southern half.
Like any new idea, it's not without its hurdles. The project with India came with lessons on what not to do: Don't use expensive, cumbersome steel to hold up the panels, which corrodes over time. And don't install panels that are difficult to move, which makes cleaning it pretty difficult.
"It inspired us to look for a design that would be lightweight, less material and allow access, and so our designs are cabled steel suspension, and they're at least 50% less material, 50% less weight," says Jordan Harris, co-founder of Solar Aquagrid, the company in charge of figuring out how to install California's first project.
Bringing solar canals south
Last week, the Los Angeles City Council voted to investigate funding a similar project over the LA Aqueduct, which is hundreds of miles of canals snaking their way from the Owens Valley down to LA, supplying our dry climate with the water it needs to support the millions of people who live here.
Councilmember O'Farrell, who chairs the City of LA's committee on energy, climate change and environment justice, introduced a motion to essentially copy what's happening up north.
"We thought, 'Well, wait a second, we've got 370 miles of an aqueduct. How about we do it here too?'" he says. "How come no one thought of this before? I chuckle because it is so obviously a path that we should head down and fully investigate."
O'Farrell says about 10% of LA's water gets lost to evaporation. Covering the LA Aqueduct could save enough water to satisfy the needs of roughly 4,000 homes. The solar panels could generate up to 100 megawatts of solar power, which is enough to power tens of thousands of homes, he says.
"We're looking at the cliche of the lowest hanging fruit - and this is certainly one of them - because it could bring power from the rights of way that we already control right into the urban core of the city of Los Angeles," he says.
Plus, solar panels floating over water are actually about five percent more efficient than solar panels floating over land. It keeps the panels cooler so they work better.
But solar over canals also comes with its downsides.
"Installation costs are high. And when I mean high, I'm talking about an order of magnitude five to six times higher than if you were to install ground mount," says LADWP Power Engineering Manager Arash Saidi.
That added cost would normally get passed onto the ratepayers, but O'Farrell says for now, federal money set aside by the Biden administration for infrastructure projects can fund this one.
The other problem: Transmitting electricity generated from a set of solar panels in the middle of nowhere isn't an easy task.
"This is 62 miles, if we run 62 miles of cable, you're going to have immense losses, especially at lower voltages." Saidi says.
The possible solution to that is providing the power from the solar panels to homes near the canals, so the electricity is not traveling as far.
There isn't a great timeline yet for when the panels will cover the LA Aqueduct. But O'Farrell is optimistic. For now, LA is on track to meet its goal of having 100% renewable energy by 2045. And solar canals will bring the city one step closer.
I've always thought of this as a spiritual quest. And I'm excited about it," he says. "The roadmap is there, it's very clear. And we know we can do it."
Caleigh Wells wrote this article for KCRW.
Disclosure: The Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety Foundation contributes to our fund for reporting on Consumer Issues, Environmental Justice, and Social Justice. If you would like to help support news in the public interest,
click here.
get more stories like this via email
New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster.
It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable Action through Project Interconnection and Deployment," and backers have said it would make clean-energy projects' permitting and interconnection processes more efficient. As states prepare their power grids for the renewable energy boom, many grid operators need to catch up, according to a new report.
Jeff Jones, a communications consultant for the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, said better connectivity is necessary to bring renewable energy to all parts of the state.
"We are now starting to see more and more distributed areas where renewable energy is being produced," he said, "but most of that is taking place in areas that have enough electricity, like in upstate New York, where we are starting to see more and more wind farms and especially solar farms."
He said people are concerned that this bill could override local opposition to transmission projects since it would require that more power lines be developed. There are also concerns about how it would affect the farm industry, and Senate lawmakers want assurance the jobs stemming from this and other bills would use local hires.
The RAPID Act is under review in the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee.
Beyond the climate benefits, the RAPID Act could bolster New York's green economy. Henry Westbrook, president and assistant business manager at IBEW Local 1249, said this bill would expedite the process of bringing new transmission projects from ideas to realities.
"We need to act now to keep up with the demand that is in front of us," he said. "You can only build things just so fast. There's going to be things that are going to get in our way: Mother Nature, terrain, the public. You're going to have to work around certain things."
Westbrook said there's a real need to upgrade an antiquated distribution system. New York had more than 170,000 clean-energy jobs in 2022. Jobs in grid modernization grew more than 8% that year, making New York's state battery storage and grid modernization sector one of the largest in the country.
Disclosure: Alliance for Clean Energy New York, Inc. contributes to our fund for reporting on Budget Policy & Priorities, Climate Change/Air Quality, Energy Policy, Environment. If you would like to help support news in the public interest,
click here.
get more stories like this via email
By Frank Jossi for Energy News Network.
Broadcast version by Mark Richardson for Minnesota News Connection reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration
After a renovation project next year, the primates at St. Paul’s Como Park Zoo will reside in one of the first net-zero city-owned buildings.
Retrofitting several buildings at the zoo and the adjacent St. Paul Conservatory is part of a decarbonization initiative by the city to reach carbon neutrality for civic buildings by 2030.
That goal is one of many in St. Paul’s 2019 climate action and resilience plan, which outlines strategies and goals for carbon reduction in private and city-owned buildings and transportation, combined with the promotion of green infrastructure, water conservation and improved waste management.
The goal: “Achieve carbon neutrality in municipal building operations by 2030.”
St. Paul owns more than 150 buildings containing over 2.3 million square feet of space. The building portfolio includes police stations, community and recreation centers, libraries, public works and operations facilities.
Buildings represent around 40% of carbon emissions nationally. Many cities, like St. Paul, have had programs for years dedicated to improving energy efficiency and adding solar to their buildings. As cities have begun to encourage, require and incentivize private building owners to become more efficient, civic leaders believe they need to serve as an example. St. Paul’s climate action plan suggests the city “inspire through municipal leadership.”
According to Abby Finis, a consultant who has written several climate action plans for Minnesota cities, cities have great opportunities to reduce greenhouse gases from their buildings.
“I think from an operations standpoint, cities are now in control of their facilities and their fleets, and there’s low-hanging fruit in both, but that’s not to say either is easy,” said Finis, who consults with St. Paul as well as Fresh Energy, publisher of the Energy News Network. “Building benchmarking, efficiency measures and decarbonization plans are good strategies.”
Should St. Paul decarbonize all city-owned buildings, it will have achieved perhaps the easiest part of its climate action plan, with city properties representing just 2% of emissions. By 2050, the plan calls for decarbonizing all buildings.
The strategy
St. Paul’s climate action plan provides a game plan of sorts for the city’s built infrastructure, with 11 recommendations guiding everything from cost analysis to building materials. In many ways, the city is simply building on its legacy of sustainability.
St. Paul energy coordinator Cecilia Govrik said from 2009 to 2018, the city’s Green Revolving Loan Fund saw 629 projects completed, saving the city $1.6 million in energy costs.
Employing efficiency measures in existing and new buildings has been St. Paul’s chief strategy for carbon reduction, but that will not get the city to net zero. St. Paul chief resilience officer Russ Stark said new and under-consctruction city buildings focus on combining efficiency with heating electrification to move the city away from natural gas.
An 25,000-square-foot community center under construction in the North End features ground-source heating and cooling combined with rooftop solar. A new fire station features an electric truck, Stark said. Lighting projects at recreation centers and the central library, along with a new HVAC at the police department’s headquarters, will also drive down emissions.
Stark suggested efficiency projects may continue, but will likely focus on LEDs and building automation rather than insulation because of the cost. Meanwhile, a decarbonization strategy could involve installing geothermal heating and cooling in larger buildings and air source heat pumps in smaller ones.
Heat pump technology could be one approach to heating electrification. However, Stark wonders whether city buildings will still need backup heating sources for subzero temperature days, a requirement adding equipment and cost.
Next year, St. Paul will take another step toward electrification by spending $4.4 million on installing a geothermal system in the zoo’s Primates Building. He said the zoo and conservatory account for roughly 20% of the city’s energy consumption, making them obvious targets for efficiency investments.
“We’re certainly really focused on the Como campus right now because so much of our building portfolio energy use is out there,” Stark said. “It’s a campus, so theoretically, there’s a way to tackle a lot in one in one spot. There’s the opportunity to use less energy and electrify those buildings.”
Como Park Zoo and Conservatory Director Michelle Furrer said the campus has an inefficient central plant built in the 1940s that produces steam heat for hot water. A feasibility study found geothermal heating and cooling systems to be a good option, with an approach of installing them in one building at a time. After completing the primate center, Furrer and the city hope to raise nearly $8 million for installing geothermal in the visitors center and the main zoo building.
Retrofitting all the zoo and conservatory’s 19 buildings will take years. Other efficiency projects involving LEDs and building management systems will help with decarbonization efforts.
“We have a unique opportunity at Como Park Zoo and Conservatory to not only talk the talk but walk the walk in what we can do,” Furrer said. “We get almost two million visitors a year. We have a great opportunity not only to do the work but also to showcase it.”
The results (so far)
Until last year, St. Paul had carbon emissions data for the entire city, but not specifically from city-owned buildings. Govrik, who started her job with the city in November 2022, spent part of her first year gathering building emission data to determine the city’s impact.
Since St. Paul passed the climate change plan, carbon emissions have declined significantly, from 21,257 metric tons of CO in 2019 to 15,800 metric tons in 2022, Govrik said. That’s a nearly 26% decrease. Emissions have been coming down for years, and she said the city should be on track to decarbonize all its buildings by 2030.
“This is really the first time we’ve had actual statistics to show how much progress we’ve made so far,” she said. “We can say we’re getting close to halfway to our goal, knowing that our end date for that carbon neutrality goal is 2030. We’re making good progress, but we still have a long way to go.”
An example of the St. Paul’s decarbonization work came in 2022, when the city decreased electricity use in buildings by 519,000 kilowatt hours and by 3,100 therms of natural gas through efficiency and LEDs projects. A year later, St. Paul used Xcel Energy’s One-Stop Efficiency Shop, managed by the Center for Energy and Environment, to upgrade lighting at seven community and recreation centers, saving 254,000 kWh.
Although St. Paul has made great strides in reducing energy use in buildings through lighting retrofits, most of St. Paul’s carbon reduction can be attributed to Xcel Energy’s transition to clean energy. More than 60% of the utility’s electricity comes from carbon-free resources, primarily nuclear and wind energy.
The challenges
Since 2015, the city’s efficiency measures have decreased electricity consumption by 47%, but only reduced natural gas consumption by 5%.
That’s in part because city-owned buildings have a wide range of ages, sizes and uses, making a one-size-fits-all approach unworkable. “There’s so much of this that has to be done at the building level because of the unique aspects of each building,” Govrik said.
Another issue is that the city hall and annex and the central police station receive heat and cooling from District Energy, which primarily serves downtown. District Energy burns waste wood for electricity in a process involving fossil fuels.
“We’ll need improvements from District Energy,” Govrik said.
Getting the city out of the habit of buying familiar replacements when HVAC systems break down will also require a cultural shift.
The city needs to break “the business as usual of just replacing equipment with the same equipment in a more efficient version,” Govrik said. ‘If we’re replacing gas boilers with more efficient gas boilers, we still have emissions from gas boilers going forward for 15 to 20 years.”
Finally, paying for electrification will not be cheap or easy. The Legislature passed 45 energy bills in 2023 that present funding opportunities for cities, as do the Inflation Reduction Act and other federal legislation. The IRA’s direct pay allows government agencies and nonprofits to receive a 30% to 40% project reimbursement, making clean energy investment for St. Paul more affordable.
“Figuring out the best funding source, grant opportunities and rebates and incentives for every project will be a challenge,” she said.
The next steps
Next year, the city plans to hire a consultant to write a decarbonization plan using a $317,000 federal grant. Govrik said the Municipal Buildings Decarbonization Plan will guide St. Paul’s clean energy initiatives for the next few years.
Since “it isn’t realistic” yet to electrify every city-owned building, staff will identify electrification projects that have the greatest impact on the city’s emissions and can take the greatest advantage of federal funding, she said.
“That plan will identify the most cost-effective pathways for achieving further energy efficiency, electrifying municipal buildings, and integrating more renewable energy into the city’s portfolio,” Govrik said.
Frank Jossi wrote this article for Energy News Network.
get more stories like this via email
Minnesota has about 15 years to achieve its mandate of 100% carbon-free electricity from utilities.
To get there, clean energy voices say the permitting process has to move much faster, and they think legislation would make a difference.
Minnesota's carbon-free standard for 2040 was approved last year.
In this legislative session, lawmakers have followed up with a measure that aims to reduce the timeline for those seeking permits for wind, solar and power grid expansion projects.
Madelyn Smerillo - regional policy manager for the Clean Grid Alliance - said not only would it help with emission targets, but would also provide certainty to developers.
"The developers need to know when they're going to be able to get steel in the ground," said Smerillo. "They need to know when they can start their construction."
Researchers say Minnesota's current permitting process for solar projects has increased from an average of 300 days to nearly 550 days.
Among other things, the bill would remove duplications, and require state agencies to identify and solve problems early in the process.
For those worried about minimizing public engagement, supporters say the new plan doesn't sacrifice the ability for residents to have their say.
Smerillo contended the proposed changes would make it easier for the public to get a better understanding of clean energy development happening in their backyard.
"So they can clearly see," said Smerillo, "these are the projects that get a shorter timeline, these are the projects that have a longer timeline, and these are the requirements that are expected of all of them. "
The bill was drafted with input from nearly 30 stakeholders recommended by state regulators. It's been making its way through committees and could be included in a larger omnibus package.
The Senate version has Republican and Democratic sponsors, hinting at bipartisan support as the measure advances.
get more stories like this via email